Shaman King: Combat Evolved
by FireWolfFred
Summary: The covenant has decided to destroy humanity by desimating earth in the past, before the humans have the technology to defeat them. Only Yoh and the other shamans can save earth. ShamanKingXHalo . When shamans become spartans - chaos ensues.
1. Yoh’s normal kind of day

**Shaman King: Combat Evolved.**

**Introduction**

_Yo everyone. Welcome to my first fanfic, "Shaman king: Combat evolved." As you may or may not have guessed it is a Shaman King/Halo crossover. For the shaman king section its set after round two of the tournament while the Halo half is set after the end of Halo 3. The first few chapters don't involve Halo so just enjoy the S.K. bit while it lasts and wait for the covenant._

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**Chapter 1: Yoh's normal kind of day.**

The sun had just risen to the highest point in the sky as Yoh Asakura rounded the last corner of his run. The intense summer heat made the horizon pulse and shimmer as he approached his house. Sweat drenched his clothes and glistened on his skin. He had been running since 9:00am as part of his shaman training, designed by his fiancée Anna. To make the training harder she had also made him wear heavy wrist and ankle weights while trying to work out a complicated algebra question in his head. She said that he might as well use his head for something rather than just a dead weight.

Yoh staggered up the steps into his garden then lumbered up to his front door. He slowly lifted his arm and turned the handle. Before he could pull it open it was pushed from the other side causing the door to smash into Yoh's head. For a few moments all went quiet then a sharp, female voice penetrated the silence.

"You're late." Stated Anna

"Sorry Anna." Yoh said nervously.

"What's done is done. No point in getting annoyed."

"You mean you're not mad."

"No I'm not mad."

"Phew. After running around the entire town ten times I'm exhausted. I'm so glad you're not angry with me as well. I just want to sit down and eat."

"I just have one small favour to ask you though."

"And what's that."

"I'm thirsty and we're out of milk. I need you to go buy some for me.

"Aww man, but Anna, the store is at the far side of town. Couldn't you just have something else?"

Anna's eyes suddenly gave a fiery stare at Yoh. For that instant Anna was more scary to Yoh than Hao's guardian ghost, Spirit of Fire. No amount of pain in his tired legs was going to make him keep Anna waiting so he quickly ran back towards the town.

Anna called back to Yoh as he reached the gates. "Oh and Yoh, you can take small fry with you before he can annoy me any more."

"Hey. I haven't done anything. I was just sat still." Protested Manta.

Before he could argue Anna picked him up by his head and hurtled him at Yoh with a throw even the greatest athlete would be proud of. There was a loud thud as Manta's head impacted with Yoh's then both boys crashed to the floor in a groaning heap.

"I'd rather go with Yoh than be stuck here with her." Manta mumbled under his breath.

"What was that you were saying shorty." Anna said menacingly.

"N-nothing Anna." He replied quickly.

"And hurry up." Anna added as she walked back into the house.

"Yes Anna" sighed Yoh.

The only delay in the journey to the store was because Manta had to fetch his little red bike so that he could keep up with Yoh.

"Do you think Anna would notice if we stopped and grabbed some food." Manta asked halfway through the town.

"Yep. She'd know. She has spirit spies all over to make sure I don't goof off."

"I don't see any spirits around."

"There's one right behind you."

"I don't see an- AAAGGGHHH!!!"

Manta pulled on his brakes suddenly as a ghostly rotted hand reached for his neck. The sudden stop sent him cart wheeling into a randomly placed pumpkin.

"WHO WAS THAT?" Manta shouted as he tried to climb out of the pumpkin.

"It was one of Anna's very distant relatives, Maluku I think. He was a convicted murderer. He had this thing about killing people under the average height. I guess some habits never die, even when the dude dies. Funny."

"NO ITS NOT FUNNY WHY DO PEOPLE ALWAYS PICK ON THE LITTLE GUY!"

"You'll be alright, as long as we hurry with the milk that is."

After that encounter Manta seemed some how more motivated to get to the store and even more motivated to get out when he saw Maluku's face in a bottle of water. Yoh quickly bought the milk and returned home as fast as he could. He was ready for a nap.

As they reached the gates to Yoh's house they saw that Anna was waiting for them, obviously informed of their return by Maluk or another spirit.

"Got your milk." Yoh said as he handed the bottle to her.

"Its green topped." She stated.

"Yep just like you always have."

"I fancied a change. I want Blue lid."

"But you always tell me that the blue tops have more fat."

"Are you saying that I never have anything fatty? Your calling me anorexic aren't you."

Yoh tried to stutter a reply. "No. I-I j-just m-meant- I'll go and fetch a blue milk now."

"You do that." She answered coldly.

Another half a hour later Yoh returned with Two bottles of milk and a stake for dinner and an apple pie and ice cream for dessert. They all sat down to eat and, as usual, Yoh made an absolute pig of himself, eating half the stake himself in only five minuets until Anna smacked him in the face and made him eat his rice with needle thin chopsticks.

Between then and bed Yoh had to do seven hours of various exercises, got right hooked by Anna twice and dropped his music player in the sink while washing pots.

When he finally managed to sleep his dreams were filled with a restaurant filled with triple cheese burgers and they were all for him. Heaven on earth. The dream didn't last however as a strange thick green gas flooded his lungs, causing him to choke while trying to be sick. No air could get through. He had to find some way out but how.

The world started to fade black while Yoh's face turned bluey-purple. He started to stumble around. Then he heard a sliding sound and headed towards that. Then suddenly he was falling…..

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Several centuries in the future a brooding figure gazed at a monitor as he addressed the messenger knelt before him.

"So the Halo was destroyed. Regret was killed. Most of our armies have been decimated and the humans still live, the Demon still lives."

"Yes sir." growled the messenger, fear evident in its deep voice. He expected a great show of anger and guessed it would be directed at him, despite the fact he had nothing to do with the bad news.

"Never mind." came the reply, much to the messengers surprise. "We no longer need worry about Regrets taint. I will take command of the remaining forces and we will strike a terrible retribution on the very souls of the humans. We will wipe the universe clean from mankind's scum.

Revenge flashed into the messengers at the opportunity to Destroy the humans once and for all.

"Ready the Covenant. Not even the Demon will stop us this time. I promise you this on the almighty honour of The Prophet of Retribution."

_A/N: Well, there was my first chapter of my first story. I tried to keep the characters personalities and responses as realistic to what they are suppose to be like as possible. Sorry about the cliff hanger but I thought I better add something which would make you all read the next chapter._


	2. Friends at the dinner table

**Chapter 2: Manta's Birthday.**

Disclaimer: My goldfish ate all the legal documents saying I own Shaman king and got my Halo ownership papers wet so you cant read it so no, I don't own either. Damn goldfish!

_A/N: Sorry if you don't think this chapter is very good. Its mostly a filler. Since nothing really happens I tried to add some humour. I promise a more action packed next chapter. _

After a very brief moment of free fall Yoh's head breached a ice cold membrane of fluid, then before he could fully register what had happened his whole body was submerged under the surface. His eyes shot open to see the green smog was replaced with blue water. _Not much of an improvement. _was his first thought. His second was, _oh wait, I cant breath. Must have air. _His third thought was,_ I'm to tired to swim, I want to go back to sleep. _His forth thought was: _I'm hungry I'll grab some food then go back to sleep. _His final thought on the matter was:_ Which way is the fridge?_

"He has been under to long." stated Manta as he looked into the deep pond below Yoh's window. "We should help him, Anna."

"If he can't even save himself from drowning he isn't worth the effort of getting wet and cold." Anna replied in a uncaring tone. "He won Hao and Spirit of Fire so I'm sure he can handle some water."

Manta was becoming increasingly worried as Yoh still didn't rise to the surface. Numerous bubbles rose from the deeps of the pond, causing Manta to fear the worst and Anna to continue staring emotionlessly at the reflective surface of the water.

"I can't wait any longer. I'm going in to help Yoh." Manta stated. He dived into the water and started to swim to the bottom. As he disappeared from sight Yoh's head broke the surface of the water.

"Hey Anna." Yoh said as if this was a normal thing to be doing in the morning. "Where's Manta." Manta's head suddenly appeared bobbing up and down near Yoh's, looking slightly purple. "Hey Manta." Yoh added, giving a casual wave to his small friend.

"Couldn't you have swam to the top before I jumped in to save you." Manta panted.

"Sorry. I kinda dozed off when I reached the bottom." Yoh said with a yawn.

"YOU DOZED OFF. HOW DO YOU DOZE OFF UNDER WATER." screamed Manta, amazed by Yoh's unique ability to sleep anywhere at all at any time.

Yoh gazed up at the still visible moon and yawned again. "Its way to early to be awake yet. Its just human nature to sleep at this time."

Manta sighed, "I'll never understand how you can be so calm all the time."

Yoh swam to the edge and climbed out of the cold water, then assisted Manta onto the solid ground. Up till now Anna had just stood and watched Yoh, but now she chose to speak.

"As much as its entertaining to see small fry get all worried and try to be the hero, you shouldn't have been under so long and got him worked up. As punishment I'm adding double laps around the town for today's training."

"Oh man, come on Anna." Yoh whined.

"Look on the bright side," Anna added in a slightly more cheerful voice. "Your already up and have had a morning bathe so you can start training early and fit about 40% extra work in."

Tears streamed down Yoh's face as he silently cried.

"Why are you up so early, swimming about in the pond." Asked Anna.

Yoh stopped crying and suddenly started to think. "I don't know. I was having a nice dream about eating cheese burgers, then I couldn't breath. I woke up surrounded by a thick green fog, tried to escape it and then fell out my window."

Manta started to speak. "I wonder what that green fog could have been and how it got ther-"

"**Aaaggghhh**, dude its Hao. Take this you hot head."

There was a flash of white light. When Manta's vision recovered he let out a scream. Yoh was encased in a solid block of ice. Stood behind him was Horohoro.

"Wow, I won Hao. **I'm the greatest**. I so owned you dude. Oh, hi Anna, Manta. Where's Yoh. He's not here and he's not in his room anymore."

"Well he is currently about five foot in front of you and then a foot of ice." replied Anna in a voice more cold than the ice surrounding Yoh.

Horohoro gulped then answered, "So that wasn't Hao."

"No," stated Manta. "It was Yoh with his hair down."

"Damn."

"I'll take it as you was in Yoh's room before as well." asked Anna.

"Yes." he replied carefully. "I was gonna sneak up on him but I kinda let one off. When the gas cleared he was gone."

"Come here." ordered Anna to the now scared looking Ainu. He walked slowly forwards, cowering slightly.

"Y-yes Anna"

"Never gas, or freeze my beloved Yoh ever again. Got it."

"Yes Anna. Sorry Anna."

"Good. I'm glad we have an understanding. Just so you remember though," Like a flash of lightning Anna's fist met Horohoro's face and in the next second his feet left the ground and fired of some where in the distance. His scream slowly faded as he sped away from the group.

The next few hours passed slowly. Yoh was still defrosting in the garden, Horohoro had been sighted somewhere in the next town and Anna had been sat watching various soaps on the TV. Manta was reading his birthday cards and opening his presents from his family.

Ryu called in to wish Manta a happy birthday and Horohoro finally made it back around the same time Yoh was fully defrosted. After a menacing glare from Anna, Horohoro cowered in a corner, nibbling on little cocktail sausages.

Next came Faust and Eliza, closely followed by Lyserg. Ren came last looking slightly misplaced carrying brightly packaged presents.

When everyone was seated, Manta excitedly opened his presents. Faust and Eliza had got him a huge tub of ice cream, Ren had bought him a hammer the same size as Manta himself, (which is still a very small fighting hammer), to test his newly developed shaman powers on while his sister Jun had made him deliver a basket of blueberry muffins. Lyserg gave him a device for his much loved laptop that worked kind of like Lyserg's pendulum. Horohoro gave him a bag of lily pad seeds so he could have Koro Pokkuru live in his garden. Ryu had baked a huge cake, bigger than Manta himself while Yoh gave him a book of new ghost stories, written through Yoh as the greatest ghost story writer was now one himself. Anna, rather cruelly bought him _Growth in a_ _bottle: makes even the smallest of people tall._

For Manta's birthday lunch they ordered out. Yoh ordered a triple cheese burger but when the food arrived it seemed Anna conveniently forgot to order his food. While everyone was eating their good food, Yoh was crying in a corner stuck with some tofu from the cupboard.

Afterwards they all went outside for some relaxation and cake, a perfect combination for Yoh, minus burgers. Yoh was just about to take a huge bite from his slice of cake when a blinding energy blast shot past him. When he opened his eyes his cake had been vaporised. Everyone else stood up and gathered their weapons and turned to face where the blast had come from, Yoh just sat there crying over his lost cake.

"Damn I missed." came a voice from behind some bushes.

""How could you miss a head that sized." asked another voice.

Yoh cried more at this comment.

"Reveal yourselves." Shouted Ren

"Why should we." shouted back one of the men.

"If you don't, I will be forced to completely obliterate that entire side of the garden. Anything remaining will have a one way ticket to oblivion." Ren replied.

"Can you even do that." Asked the other man.

"Stay behind the bush and you'll soon find out."

"I suppose we best come out then." said one.

"Agreed." stated the other.

One man walked out either side of the bush. Then another, then another. Soon an impossible amount had stepped from behind the bush.

"Hundreds verses six. Lets even the odds a bit. Stand back and let me handle this. Give the poor bastards a chance." laughed Ren confidently.

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Two distant suns shone down upon the mountain dominated landscape of Gah'lo. Encased within huge stone teeth was a large barren area several miles in diameter. Embedded into the side of the largest mountain was what looked like an ancient temple.

From above it looked like a swarming ants nest. Up close revealed thousands of creatures busying themselves. Ape like men haled crates around full of weapons and armour while little creatures zipping this way and that, yipping excitedly in their high pitch voices. Ranks upon ranks stood awaiting orders, all wearing the highest quality armour and the strongest weapons.

At the front of the army sat an alien who gazed with pride at the warriors before him. His floating chair lifted higher into the air and every person in the clearing became silent.

"Very soon all of the children of the Covenant will be here with us. Once we are all assembled and armed, we will strike the humans where they are most vulnerable."

A huge roar erupted from the army as they savagely beat their breast plates.

The speaker raised his hand and the cheering stopped. "The Gods will is that we destroy the humans. As soon as we are ready, that will be accomplished by our own hands."

A roar even loader than the last echoed over the mountain range across the whole planet. The prophet smiled to himself. The covenant was finally ready to defeat the humans once and for all.

_A/N: well like I said, not the best chapter but I hope its not terrible. Like I said, next chapter things start to really kick off. P.S. Yoh is my favourite character and I do feel mean for picking on him and making him look like a cry baby, but it fits his character. _


	3. Back Yard Brawl

**Chapter 3; Back Yard Brawl.**

Disclaimer: I don't own Shaman King or Halo. If I did, the master chief would be replaced by Caboos from red vs. blue, the flood would all wear top hats and the forerunners would be penguins. I'd keep shaman king more or less the same.

_A/N: As promised this will be the first action chapter so I hope I've written it well. Within about five chapters the Halo side of the story will be in. from here on I hope to make the majority of the chapters action packed. Enjoy._

The sun shone brightly as Ren stepped forwards. The light was magnified to a blinding level as it reflected off his sword _Hou Rai Ken_.

"Bason." Ren said.

A spirit suddenly became visible at his side. "How may I help you botchama."

"We're going to teach these rude interlopers a lesson they won't soon forget." before anyone could react, Ren was off. "Bason, into Hou Rai Ken."

There was a huge flash of light, then when vision returned a second later, Ren had already crossed the gap between his friends and his enemies.

One of the two men who appeared to be in charge raised his hand and released a fireball from his palm. It burst forwards, narrowly missing Ren's chest. Instead it caught his arm as he attempted to dodge.

"What the hell was that." he sneered. He looked at his arm and saw that it was burned. "That's nothing but a mere flesh wound comparing what I'm going to do to you lot."

The opposite man spoke, We'll see how you feel about that after I say my next word."

"Oh, and what might that be." Ren asked angrily.

"ATTACK!" he roared in reply.

"Just great." was all Ren managed to say before all the other men threw off their robes and leapt forwards. Every sing one of the people were actually half animals like Ren's father's Joto guard.

As the tide of mismatched creatures stampeded towards him, Ren attacked. He slashed the first three in one blow, parried a forth attacker and broke another's ribs with one powerful kick. He managed to look up in time to see a large pair of talons heading at high speed towards him. He had no time to react to the new threat.

Their was a quick flash of white light, which anyone who hadn't been close to death as many times as Ren might have thought was the first sign of you dieing, then the annoying shout of, "I so just saved your ass dude. You now owe me your life."

A few foot away a half woman half hawk ice Berge crashed to the ground. As Ren glanced around him he could see he was not alone, much to his annoyance. Yoh was hacking his way towards the leaders, Faust and Eliza were protecting Manta and Anna, Ryu and Lyserg were trying to make sure no one person was overwhelmed by enemies. Horohoro was simply having fun. Not one was using a giant spirit form, or in Yoh's case his double spirit medium.

Ren wasn't going to let Yoh take all the glory by winning the enemy leaders. He too started to slice his way towards the two still cloaked men.

Yoh reached them first, and being the person he was he started up a conversation before attacking. "Who are you guys and why are you trashing my garden and attacking my friends."

"We are faithful followers of your brother." they both replied as one.

"We destroyed Hao. Why still follow him." Asked Yoh.

"He will return and when he does he will reward us for our loyalty."

"We won Hao. How do you think you can win" taunted Ren now he had reached them.

Both men just laughed. "Firstly, it was Yoh here who won him, the rest of you merely annoyed him like a persistent fly. Secondly, Yoh only won because he used all the shaman's Furyoku from the second round."

The other continued where the first left off. "We have been working on a way to replicate Hao's powers and in a way we succeeded. We made these gloves we're wearing and they have a replicating technology. If we put our Furyoko into them we can use the same powers as Hao himself, if not as strong obviously."

To prove what he said he fired another fireball from the glove at a tree. It exploded. The next second he fired one directly at Yoh. Yoh managed to cut at the fireball, causing it to split in two. Within seconds chaos took over. Both men started to jump about, firing at Yoh and Ren constantly.

Yoh rolled across the ground, dodging three rapidly fired attacks. He slashed another in half then fired a celestial slash at one of the men. It was a direct shot. A storm of dust rose from the dirt.

When it cleared the man was still stood there. He had rubble all around him.

"Hao could control the five elements. If what these guys say is true, so do they." stated Ren.

"No way dude." panted Horohoro as he finally reached them. "You mean they can shoot fire at us, create earth shields, move water, control air and……… wait, what is the fifth element?"

"I would think it's a spiritual element. Or maybe life, that could explain how he can reincarnate." pondered Ren.

They had no time for further thoughts on the matter as the firing recommenced and another wave of creatures hit them.

After ducking to avoid a scythe like arm Yoh risked a glance behind him. Anna had just slapped one beast so hard it when flying through the air and collided with three other ones. Manta was using the hammer Ren gave him, but not in oversoul. He ran under one of the things legs and smashed it in the groin with all his strength, resulting in it falling to the floor and curling into a small, whimpering ball.

Everyone else seemed to be getting on well to.

"Hey Horohoro, do you mind taking care of these guys while me and Ren take care of Hao's minions?" Yoh shouted over to his snow loving friend.

"Sure thing dude. I'll be back with you in a minute." replied the Ainu as he froze a charging lion man.

Yoh ran forwards as fast as he could towards the robed man on the right while Ren headed for the one on the left.

There was a loud thud as the earth suddenly rose in front of Yoh and he couldn't stop running in time to avoid it. He quickly picked himself of the floor as more fireballs destroyed the ground where he had been lay a second before.

No amount of fire power managed to stop the two shaman for long. They finally reached the robed men and were about to deliver a finishing blow when both men clapped their gloved hands together. Golden flames washed over their body's. When the flames receded they held in their hands glowing red swords resembling Hao's double spirit medium.

Ren shot forwards and slashed with perfect precision again and again but each time the man parried. Ren used every technique he could think of without using his giant spirit form.

Yoh on the other hand pulled his antiquity from his belt and formed his own double spirit medium. After seeing this both men removed their cloaks. Both had black and white hair although one was longer than the other. They wore white leather trench coats.

The fighting the continued. The longer haired man and Yoh were darting around the now wrecked garden while Ren was having a power fight with the other.

Yoh managed to parry a particularly strong lunge, jump into the sky, dodge a slash, then while the man's defences were down he fired a celestial slash at his chest. It was a perfect shot. The man crashed to the ground with a bone braking force.

Ren had just pinned the other with various weapons that had erupted from the ground. He gave one last mighty swing of his sword and sent the man hurtling into a tree.

By this time all of the creature minions had been defeated and the shamans had gathered around Yoh and Ren.

The dust cleared from where the two men hade landed. The longer haired one was struggling to his feet, the other was still laying on the ground.

"It's over." shouted Ren.

The man just laughed. "Is it."

In the blink of an eye he was gone. A squeal sounded behind Yoh. He looked around and their was the man, holding his sword to Anna's back, his hand across her mouth.

"Put your weapons down or she gets it." he said menacingly.

Yoh shuddered then placed his weapon on the floor. The others followed suit.

"Good." replied the man. "Now its time for you all to suffer.

**Slap.**

The man staggered back. His cheek was burning red.

"You'll regret that you bitch." he screamed at Anna. He thrust his blade through her stomach. She gasped then slid to the floor. Blood pooled around her.

Yoh closed his eyes and began to shake violently.

Join with me my brother." called the long haired man. The other man who had just manage to stand nodded. He burst into a strange red light which was then fully absorbed by the first.

The man remaining was now taller than he had been before, his white hair had become silver and he held both swords. His eyes were a glowing red and he spoke with two voices at once, each only a nano-second out of sync with the other. "Time for you to meet your demise. With your deaths we can resurrect Hao ourselves and he will thank us greatly.

Yoh stopped shaking and slowly opened his eyes. "I cannot forgive you for what you have just done to Anna. You WILL die here now!"

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"The final ship has just arrived." informed a monstrous gray furred guerrilla. The prophet of retribution nodded his head in acknowledgment.

The army around them had almost doubled in the past few days. Purple vehicles of different kinds zipped through the air or sat like waiting titans.

"We have assembled around ten thousand warriors. It is far from the armies we had before Regrets death but it should be enough to crush the humans." said the guerrilla to another acknowledging nod from the prophet.

"And the new recruits?" asked the prophet.

"Ready for war" replied the other.

"Good. Their… specialties will serve us very well in the upcoming campaign.

_A/N: Sorry about cliff hanger. Next chapter you will see a darker side to Yoh than you have ever seen before. Thank you for reading, please review._


	4. Yoh's Dark Side

**Chapter 4: Yoh's Dark Side.**

Disclaimer: I was going to buy the rights for halo and shaman king but instead I spent all my money on a lifetime supply of sporks to just randomly fill my house. Now I don't own halo or shaman king but I'll never not have a trusty spork by my side.

_A/N: As I said, Yoh will be a lot darker than he has ever been before. Some might say its out of character but this is how I think he would react if Anna was badly injured. Enjoy. _

"Faust," shouted Yoh. "Do whatever it takes to save Anna."

"Of course." replied Faust, already checking Anna's condition.

No matter how hard Yoh tried he couldn't control his Furyoku. His anger coursed through him leaving him with only one clear thought, _Kill the bastards_ _who dared hurt Anna. _His double spirit medium grew in size even though he knew that would weaken it. More of his Furyoku was pumped into it to make up for its size.

The man who had caused Yoh's rage laughed. "Has the ever calm Yoh finally lost his cool. That will teach him to mess with us, the great Keyjin, Hao's now top servant."

Yoh burst forwards with inhuman speed roaring wildly. He attacked with such force that all the ground around him shattered. Keyjin defended with both swords the started to attack as well, both raising into the air.

To the on lookers the combat seemed nearly just a blur. A wild frenzy of slash, lunge parry, dodge.

Keyjin landed while Yoh was still in the air, both had many cuts across their bodies. Yoh rapidly fired celestial slash after celestial slash down at Keyjin. He dodged or parried every one, then firing his own attack from the tip of both swords. They spiralled together and joined as one, flying straight through Yoh's chest, blood spraying everywhere.

It barely seemed to affect Yoh. He just dived down and continued the fight, making no attempt to stop the free flowing blood. He was been cut to shreds by Keyjin but still he didn't stop. Keyjin himself now was covered in blood too but not near the level Yoh was.

In a chain of motions to fast for the eye to see, blood seemed to burst from all over Yoh. He collapsed to the floor struggling to breath.

"You can't win us. We are at half of Hao's power. Even at your best you only go to about a quarter of his power." bragged Keyjin. All your friends are nothing. They will die and you will watch. We will slaughter all of them, leaving your precious Anna till last, then slowly kill you."

Yoh mustered all his strength then managed to struggle to his feet.

"So, you can still stand. More fun for us."

"Amidamaru" Screamed Yoh as he leapt into the sky. "**kyuukyoku zetsumetsu!**"

Yoh suddenly began to radiate a blinding red light and his Furyoku levels went through the roof. Golden sparks shot from his body in all directions.

"Make the strongest shield you can with your Furyoku" Roared Ren over the increasing sound of the wind.

The air became thick and the ground began to shake. It was like the apocalypse.

All was silent. Not just quiet but no sound at all. Horohoro shakily picked himself off the ground and looked around. What was once Yoh's back garden was now a crater. Nothing moved other than Ren pulling himself to his feet.

They both looked down to the centre of the crater and saw Yoh Staggering towards Keyjin.

"P-please d-don't k-kill me." begged Keyjin. His body was a wreck. He was lucky he was alive.

"You hurt Anna. You tried to kill her and my friends. I hope you rot in hell." replied Yoh coldly.

"N-no w-wait plea-" Keyjin's pleas were cut off as Yoh slit his throat with the now separate antiquity.

Ren and Horohoro stared dumbly at Yoh. Neither could imagine Yoh been so cruel. Usually he would have just laughed and helped him up and they'd be friends.

"Dude. I'm glad I never tried to hurt Anna." Stated Horohoro, slightly afraid.

Yoh remained standing for a few moments just staring at his opponents body, then he collapsed face first into the dirt. Ren and Horohoro quickly darted down to Yoh's side, shakily followed by Faust.

Yoh was shivering and a cold sweat drenched his body. Faust quickly checked his vital signs while Horohoro picked up Yoh's sword. It burst into ash as he held it in his hands. "Dude." he whispered.

"Amidamaru." called Ren. The samurai spirit appeared by Yoh's side looking just as bad as his partner.

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After the brilliant golden light from his last attack, Yoh's vision was still dotted. For a few moments a red cloud blurred his vision then faded again. That short amount of time was enough to end a mans life though. Now all colour was fading into darkness. His body felt broken, his blood felt like acid in his veins and his mined burned with guilt. All thoughts came to an end after a few seconds of agony. The world became fully black.

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The first part of Yoh to wake up was his stomach. It rumbled loudly, waking up the rest of him. He opened his eyes and looked around. He was in his own room.

"He's awake! He's awake! Yoh's awake!" called Manta from the door.

Suddenly Faust, Eliza, Ryu and Horohoro burst through the door and crowded around Yoh's bed. Ren walked in afterwards with his sword in his hand. He pointed to the crowd. "Give Yoh some room to breath or you'll be in your own sick beds with multiple injuries."

"Lighten up Ren. We're just glad to see him awake." replied horohoro

"Your right, I should lighten up." Said Ren. "Faust can stay, he's a qualified doctor."

"Damn it dude." mumbled Horohoro.

Everyone but Faust backed away. "He seems fine." stated Faust.

Up until then Yoh's mind was a mess and he couldn't remember much, but now the memories flooded back into his brain.

"I-I killed a man." whispered Yoh to himself. The happy mood in the room turned grey and cold.

"Get over yourself." sneered Ren. "So what you killed him, he was trying to kill you and us. He impaled Anna for crying out loud."

"Where is Anna? Is she ok?" Yoh asked urgently.

"She's fine." replied Faust. She is in her room, resting like you. She woke up a few days ago." He paused then continued, "While you were unconscious I ran some tests on you and I discovered a small essence of Hao's soul dwells within yours so that's probably why you killed Kayjin. It will fade in time. Give it another week and it will be fully gone."

"That's good to know. I'd like to go see Anna so if you could all just leave me alone for a bit I would be grateful." said Yoh.

Everyone left and Yoh got dressed in his normal clothes. He slowly walked over to Anna's room and knocked quietly. There was no answer for a few seconds then Anna's soft voice reached Yoh's ears. "Come in."

He meekly opened thee door and looked inside. Anna was fully dressed and sat on the edge of her bed.

"Um…. Hi Anna. H-how are you." he asked timidly.

"Fine" she stated. I-I heard what you did after I was injured, how you won him to save me." It looked like she wasn't sure how to say her next sentence. "T-thank you."

Yoh looked shocked. "Ur, your welcome."

Anna's caring side vanished again and she became the normal cold Anna again. " You destroyed the garden. I liked the garden. Get out there and fill in the hole you made, replant all the grass, trees and flowers and build a nice water fountain while your at it."

Yoh Sweat dropped, then replied "Yes Anna." and set of for the garden.

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"Prophet, reports have just been received that one of our outer colony worlds have just been destroyed by the humans. There were no forces to protect it. No one survived." stated the grey furred guerrilla. He wore shining crimson armour that held a great contrast with his fur. In his hands he held a large hammer like weapon bigger than a man.

"Do not fret general." replied the prophet. "The humans have yet to rebuild their inner worlds so they cannot assault our worlds for long. Then when we strike we will return every death they caused tenfold."

"Operations inside the temple have been completed. We have found the relic that you desire."

"Good" smiled the prophet. "Send a scouting party through to set up a base."

_A/N: The shaman king side is almost over and Halo is on the horizon. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. PLEASE REVIEW. It helps me write knowing people like it. Criticisms are welcome if they help me improve. Don't know when next chapter will be up. Bye. _


	5. First contact with the Covenent

**Chapter 5: First Contact with the Covenant. **

Disclaimer: I would write something funny here about why I don't own halo or shaman king but instead of thinking of something clever I've just been repeatedly watching a penguin bitch slap Hitler. ROCK ON!!!

_A/N: Sorry for the __**long **__delay on this chapter, many of you properly though something had happened to me. No. I was just a little depressed and had a large case of writers block. But anyway, as the title suggests the covenant are finally showing their ugly alien faces. Because of the delay I've made sure this chapter is nice and long. Thanks to the few people who have reviewed so far, please do send me a review no matter how big or small it may be. _

Foot steps echoed down the deserted corridor of the shopping centre. The glow from the moon was the only source of light. The echoes stopped as the security guard halted his patrol around the building to gaze out of a window at the starry sky. A second guard rounded the corner and joined the first.

From what sounded like the middle of the centre a strange metallic crackling noise pulsed through the corridors. The two guards turned and drew their pistols and slowly advanced forwards to investigate. As they began to near the cause of the noise a eerie green glow reflected on the walls, gradually getting brighter the closer they got. They turned the last corner and froze.

There in the centre of the huge room was a large glowing swirl of green light. Surrounding it were lots of small dog like creatures that smelt awful. Dotted around the room were what looked like apes in armour. To one side were two perfectly still statue like beings that were about twice the size of a human. They were mostly obscured in shadows so little detail could be worked out.

A squawk sounded of from one of the beams across the roof and as the guards looked up they saw strange vulture faced men. The squawk had alerted the other creatures and now every alien eye in the room was focused on them.

The men gulped as they saw all the creatures raise strange guns. Each man opened fire as they staggered back towards the door. Both men used the full ammo clip, killing two of the dog like things. The apes didn't seem to notice the bullets pinging of their chests.

The aliens returned fire. One of the men managed to dive behind cover, the other wasn't so lucky. Spikes punctured his chest and a super heated substance burned his side away. He collapsed to the floor in a bloody mess.

The second man ran as fast as humanly possible, narrowly dodging more spikes. He screamed pleas of help down his walky-talky as he desperately shot behind him. One other dog creature fell to the floor as he fired his last shot. His pistol was now useless.

As he ran he turned a corner and hurriedly opened a shops shutter and locked himself in. the beasts weren't stupid though. One of the apes walked up to the metal structure and ripped it from the wall in one mighty pull. The man screamed and grabbed an ornamental katana from its stand.

"**Leave me alone**!" he roared as he hacked at the beast.

The ape merely rumbled a laugh as the metal didn't even cut its fur.

"**Damn you**!" screamed the man as he thrust the blade through the apes left eye.

It made a ear crushing roar as it wrenched the metal from its skull. The man was thrown back into a stack of cans. Once the now bloodied blade was yanked from its eye the beast charged forwards and picked up the man and held him above his head.

"**Help me**!" the man cried out in desperation. No one came. The ape snapped his spine in one flick of its wrists. It threw the body into the wall, braking other bones. It spat on the battered body.

It turned to address the other creatures. "Prepare the attack."

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Over the last few weeks Yoh and his friends had been recovering and training. Each were still determined to become the shaman king so there was a lot of "friendly" competition.

It was still early morning, Anna was sat watching TV, Ren was training, Ryu was busy making a large breakfast, Lyserg was reading and the others where still asleep. Yoh was dreaming about the sky with burger looking clouds when there was a sudden bang, waking him up.

Anna was stood by the door. "Yoh, there has been an attack at the Kyotima shopping centre. Get ready. We're leaving in five minuets."

"Wait," asked Yoh. "You usually tell us not to go and do dangerous things, why the change of heart."

"That shopping centre is the best in Japan, I buy lots of stuff from there. Without it I would have to go a lot further to get the same stuff so cheap."

If Yoh wasn't already laid down he would have sweat dropped. He glanced over to the clock on the wall. "Aww but its 6:30am." he mumbled as he struggled to his feet. A quick glare from Anna quelled any more complaints.

After throwing on some cloths and grabbing a rushed breakfast they sped outside only to see a floor in their plan.

"Um, Anna, how do we get there. I doubt that the train will be heading there today, plus there will be police guarding the boundaries."

"Let me handle this." stated Ryu confidently. How used his spirit ally in his "Big thumb" technique."

"You do know that Billy is in America." scoffed Ren.

"Any fellow brother of the road will come and assist when needed." replied Ryu.

The next instant a beat up looking taxi pulled up next to them. A half crazy man opened the window and ogled at Ryu. "Jump in my legendary brother. Make yourself at home, your friends too."

They all climbed into the bright yellow car and somehow managed to all fit, more or less. Crazy country music boomed through the speakers and the seats springs had poked through the thinning material.

"Where to?" the driver asked. "Oh and my names Bob."

"Okay Bob, would you please take us to the Kyotima shopping centre." asked Ryu.

"U-um, you do know its under attack at the moment. All traffic is been diverted. If I try to go near they'll arrest me………..again." said Bob.

Ryu thought for a moment. If you get us as close as you possibly could get, I'll give you a free hair style so you can have my amazing do."

""Who in their right mind would want to have your hair style. I'd drive you to hell just to avoid it. Theirs no chance he'll except." sneered Ren bluntly.

"Oh. My. God. OH MY GOD! You've got yourself a deal." screamed Bob, smashing his foot onto the acceleration pedal.

After nearly crashing numerous times and narrowly avoiding fatal injuries, they arrived to where the police had blocked the road. Bob didn't show any signs of slowing. Instead he increased his speed. He made a slight turn and started heading for a mound of mud.

"He's not planning to use that as a ramp is he." asked Ren unbelievingly.

"I'd say he is." answered Faust happily.

"This is gonna be so cool dudes." shouted Horo Horo.

The police started to shoot. The car wheels hit the mud. The entire taxi left the ground. Every person in it began to scream, minus Anna and Ren. It started to spin in mid air. More bullets pinged off the metal. The roof hit the floor. It flipped over onto the side, then the other side, then back to the roof. It skidded for twenty foot then miraculously flipped back onto the wheels and was driving normally instantly. Bob was humming along with the radio the whole time.

Even now the police had been left behind Bob didn't slow the taxi. The shopping centre came into view, he didn't slow. They were ten foot away and still he didn't slow. Everyone screamed again as the wall filled the entire front window. Everyone flew forwards as the car suddenly stopped.

Yoh opened the door and fell to the floor. Anna got out and walked over him. The others piled out in relief that they had all somehow survived.

"Um, thanks for the ride Bob," Yoh Started to say when he was interrupted by screams. They looked towards the door and saw three police men come flying out, closely followed by pink crystals. The policeman in the lead leapt to the side and avoided the projectiles. The other two weren't as lucky. The crystals punctured their clothes and skin, embedding themselves halfway into their bodies. It wasn't a fatal injury though, they could be healed.

The shards detonated, cooking the insides of the men. There was the sound of blood curdling screams and the smell of burnt flesh, then quiet.

"You cant expect them to go in there Anna." Manta shouted.

"They'll be fine." Anna replied confidently.

Yoh looked at the bodies, gulped, then said "Are you ready Amidamaru."

The samurai spirit appeared at his side. "If you are ready then so am I."

The shamans slowly approached the entrance and looked inside. All seemed clear. They stepped inside, still nothing happened. A squawk sounded from the roof. There was a strange vulture like creature positioned up there.

"I'll get it." shouted Lyserg as he fired his pendulum and the thing. It narrowly dodged it and ran off further into the building.

"Damn." muttered Lyserg.

"Well don't just stand here, lets follow it." ordered Ren.

They followed the direction the beast had gone and eventually found themselves in the middle of the shopping centre.

"Shit" was all anyone could manage to say. The main feature of the room was a large green light that Yoh knew shouldn't be there. Surrounding it were several gorilla like creatures wearing armour. Around them scuttled lots of weird dog looking freaks wearing what looked like gas masks. On the roof were a handful of the vulture like creatures they had seen earlier. All the creatures were armed with strange guns. They opened fire.

The shamans dived for cover. Amazingly non were hit. The ground where they had stood moments before was smouldering.

"Damn." growled Ren. There cover was been hammered by shot after shot of the multicoloured fire like goo.

"We cant move, those things on the roofs are snipers. We lift a finger from the cover and they'll know." stated Lyserg.

"Can you and Chloe take them down." Yoh asked as he risked a glance at the foes.

"We'll try." replied the green haired boy as he readied his pendulum.

He jumped out, nimbly dodging a super heated beam, rolled across the floor and fired. Chloe sped towards the first sniper and flew straight between its eyes, killing it instantly. She then rounded and zipped around a seconds feet, tripping it off the beam it was stood on. It hit the floor with a bone braking crack and a last ear splitting squawk.

The creatures on the ground and the remaining snipers returned fire as Lyserg tried to dive back into cover. One of the snipers beams ripped through his shoulder and a brown spike punctured his calf. The other shots dotted the wall and floor around him. Yoh dragged him fully into cover and Faust started to do what he could for the boy.

"Damn." muttered Yoh as he tried to asses the situation.

"Screw this." roared Ren. "I was never one for hiding like a coward." he leapt from the crate he was using as cover, kicked one of the little aliens in the head as he landed sending it into a wall. He charged forward towards the closest ape who were obviously the leaders of the creatures. It emptied a whole "clip" of spikes at Ren but he easily avoided them. Now the gap between them was closed. Ren thrust his blade through the beasts chest. It snarled.

Ren gave a quick snort as it tried to strangle him but Ren kept enough distance so only its finger tips brushed his neck.

"Nice try." laughed Ren as he thrust the blade deeper. He then shot a burst of lightning from the weapon, burning the beasts innards and frying a small creature stood behind the ape. The monkey roared, then slowly slid off the blade into a pool of its own blood. Dead.

Hell broke out. The other apes roared and charged forwards, the snipers began to fire at the shamans who were now out of cover to help Ren, (other than Lyserg and Faust), and the small, annoying, smelly, barking beasts were just running around screaming while shooting randomly in the shamans general direction.

Chunks of floor, wall and anything else that was in the area flew through the air as spikes and the fire goo criss-crossed around the room.

HoroHoro froze one of the snipers on the roof as he used his snowboard to block a hail of incoming spikes. He then made several large ice spikes erupt from the ground, skewering two of the little dudes and sending a rather large spike into one of the apes bollocks. It dropped to the floor holding its groin and started screaming like a baby, (which is very disturbing coming from a very large gravely voiced ape man.)

Ryu was bludgeoning several little guys as they tried to run away after they had singed all his hair with their green fire goo weapons.

Yoh on the other hand had been attacked by a huge hammer wielding maniac. It swung and Yoh expertly dodged it- yet he still went flying into the air and into a wall. He picked himself up just to be smacked again by the hammer, narrowly avoiding a fatal blow with his sword. He staggered to his feet and fired a celestial slash directly at the hammer happy monkey. The smoke cleared- and the beast seemed unharmed.

"Puny vermin." it laughed.

Yoh used all the speed he had and in the time it took for the beast to blink Yoh had managed to get behind him. Yoh slashed and- the beast defended with the handle of the hammer then punched the boy in the stomach. Blood spurted from his mouth at the blow.

"Time to die." it sneered menacingly.

"Not yet." Yoh replied as he leapt back and pulled out the antiquity. After a flash of light he held in his hands his double spirit medium, (D.S.M.). Both he and the ape charged. His D.S.M. was just enough to counter the strange force that erupted from the hammer. They fought equally at first but Yoh managed to get the upper hand when he used a celestial slash at point blank range. The apes brown/red armour fell of at the impact. Now he was open. He put all his furyoku into his next slash and swung at its head. It raised the hammer in defence but it was cut like butter. Its head rolled across the floor as its body went limp and fell.

Yoh released a long sigh of relief. They were winning. Only three apes remained, about nine small guys and two snipers- both aimed exactly at him. "Shit!"

_Ptuuu (covenant snipers don't go bang so bare with my crappy sound effects.)_

Yoh waited for the pain but it didn't come. _maybe I'm already dead, _he thoughtgrimly. _if so, where are all the super comfy beds and mega tasty burgers I was promised. _He opened his eyes and saw the battles still going on around him. He looked up to the snipers. They were still stood there. Then they just fell. Stood in their place was a boy with an afro.

"Chocolove." Yoh shouted in relief. "Good timing."

Choco jumped down from the beam and landed gracefully on the ground. "You didn't

Think you could leave the banana out of the split did you." he tried to joke.

"Shocking as always." called over Ren. Chocolove sweat dropped.

"Come on. I just saved Yoh's life."

There was a sudden thunder like bang, followed closely by another, then another. Out of the shadows burst two giant, fully armoured monsters. All the other foes were dead but avoiding bullets drains the energy of even the fittest man.

The ends of their arms started to glow green then a huge green beam shot out towards HoroHoro. He dived out of the way of the first shot but the second one annihilated his stuck out snowboard.

No sooner had they fired were they stampeding towards their designated targets, Yoh and Ren. Both used whatever ranged attacks the could before the monsters reached them until Ren decide "Screw it" again and charged to meet his attacker. Yoh used the remaining time to get into his best fighting stance.

As soon as Ren's sword touched the monsters defensive arm mounted shield he was smashed across the room through the hole in the wall caused by their first attack. It followed Ren out of the room.

Yoh released a Buddha slash when his opponent was within range. It did nothing. The thing swung its shield at Yoh's head, only narrowly missing through a last second duck from Yoh. Instead it rammed Yoh through the closest wall. Before he could stand the monster placed its huge foot on Yoh's chest and started to apply bone braking force.

Ren wasn't fairing much better. He was been held against the wall by his throat. Blood was streaming from his mouth and he couldn't breath. Both he and Yoh were at deaths door.

As all hope of surviving was quickly fading, the monsters both suddenly reared back and grunted in immense pain. Suddenly both burst into flames. Strange little worms were oozing from the burning corpses but they to died.

Yoh looked around to see what had happened. All his friends we're unconscious or dead on the ground, battered by debris from the destruction of the walls and collapsed over head beams. None of them could have done anything. He turned around. There was another person stood there. He had long hair and wore a poncho.

"HAO!?!" shouted Yoh in surprise, dread and anger.

Hao smiled and then the world went black………………..

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"The scout force met fierce resistance." reported the general.

"How so?" asked Retribution. "Their weapons are very primitive, their armour no match for our weapons. They have no experience fighting us. How can they put up "fierce resistance" in such a short amount of time? How many soldiers did they send in?"

The general hesitated. "…seven.

"Seven?" repeated the prophet barely containing his rage.

"They had strange weapons we have never seen before. That doesn't mater though. When my jackal returned it said that only two remained standing and they were been finished off by the Hunters."

"Never the less, send in another squad of brutes to asses the situation, finish off any survivors and continue setting up the base."

_A/N: ok. Like I said, sorry for the very late update. I hope this makes up for it. don't expect a quick update for the next chapter, but the more reviews I get, the more confident I'll feel and so I'll write better stuff at a quicker pace so please review._


	6. The Future

**Chapter 6: The Future.**

_Disclaimer.__ I don't own anything I've previously said that I don't own._

_A/N: If Anyone actually cares, sorry about not updating in months. Lack of reviews. Anyway, here is chapter six. it's the main halo arc now so as the title states they're going to the future. If anyone has any questions just ask in a review. If you like the chapter spend a minute to tell me you do, if you think its crap tell me so I can change it. On with the story._

Yoh awoke. Fire danced around him, reminding him of the last thing he saw before he passed out. Hao. He leapt to his feet and looked around the burning room. His friends still lay there, unmoving. Unconscious or dead. Then he spotted his twin stood in the light of the strange glowing contraption.

"So, your finally awake. Took your time." taunted the fire shaman.

"What the hells happening. I killed you, but you look the same. What are these weird creatures. If you've done anything to my friends you'll pay." Yoh was starting to rant in fear and anger.

"I have as much of an idea about these creatures as you, which is sad. You didn't kill me but you left me for dead and I haven't touched your friends." Hao answered Yoh's questions in a bored, impatient manner. "In fact I've been keeping these things from harming them." he motioned the charred corpses of the creatures littered around him and the strange light.

Yoh rushed over to the closest human body which happened to be Ren's. He lay unmoving, his body battered and bleeding. His pulse was still there. Yoh sighed a breath of relief but didn't let Hao out of his sight for one second.

"I need Faust." Yoh mumbled to himself as he searched for the doctor's body.

"The necromancer is over by the toffee shop." stated Hao, much to Yoh's annoyance.

Yoh headed over to the ruins of the toffee shop and found Faust propped up against its crumbling wall. He was replacing several of his destroyed bones with those of various corpses around him.

After a few hours of healing and another alien wave attacking, which was easily defeated by Hao, the group was all able to stand. Nobody trusted Hao but since he wasn't attacking them and they could barely move, they left him be. He stayed in the shadows.

Yoh finally broke the silence. "We need to close that portal." all but Hao nodded in agreement.

"You will only die if you try anything in your present condition. You must rest. I shall guard as you sleep." said Hao without emotion.

"Why should we trust you." demanded Ren.

Hao stepped out into the light of the flames. The group gasped at what they saw. He was still in his last form but a horrific scar ran down the centre of his face and chest from his battle with Yoh.

He spoke slowly. "After my battle with Yoh, while my soul floated in limbo, the King of Spirits spoke to me. He said I either had to repent my sins or I would be eternally banished from the world of the living and dead."

"He's never stopped you before, why should he start now." shouted Lyserg, shaking with fury.

"Look at it this way then. I could kill you all without me lifting a finger at the moment. Why would I need to wait until you were asleep to destroy you." Hao replied, a hint of his old arrogance returning.

No one in the group looked ready to side with Hao. Each person had a hostile look in their eyes as they gazed upon the fire shaman.

"Hao is right." sighed Yoh. "As much as I hate the idea, there is no other option. We cant fight how we are at the moment. We need some rest." the others still looked appalled at the idea of trusting Hao. "If it makes you feel any better I'll be staying up to watch over things too."

Grudgingly the group settled down and began to drift off one by one. Eventually only Hao, Yoh and Ren were still awake. Despite Yoh's advice, Ren kept his eyes solely upon the fire shaman.

Morning came without incident. The group still looked like they had been constantly dragged backwards and forwards through a thorn bush all night but they were as ready as they were going to get without a week of relaxation.

"You sure we've gotta go through that thing?" asked Horrohorro, speaking the thought that every shaman was thinking.

"I am going whatever you all choose to do" sneered Hao. "If your too scared that's your problem."

"Scared." scoffed Ren. "I will show you the bravery of a real shaman." he said as he marched up to the portal.

"Outta the way dude!" called Horrohorro as he sped past Ren on his board, carried by a wave of ice. Their was a faint electrical crackle then Horrohorro was gone. Ren closely followed, muttering something about rudeness. Hao stepped through next. Yoh waited until every other shaman was through then with a last look around the devastated room before joining the others.

In a flash the ruins of the shopping centre were replaced by a different kind of ruins. Unlike the scene they had just left, their new surroundings looked ancient. Worn and weathered stone formed the walls and a complicated web of red vines grew across its surface.

"Holy shit." shouted Horrohorro. He didn't mean the ruins though. In the dome they had appeared in there must have been hundreds of the various creatures they had fought yesterday, all fully armed. "Er, Yoh?" he questioned.

Four oversouls suddenly popped into existence, closely followed by two double spirit mediums. The room was too small to use Spirit of Fire or other giant oversouls.

As one, every alien in the room roared. A series of bangs echoed outside, diverting the aliens attention. In that moment the shamans struck. Within the first second ten alien lives ended.

Six of the huge creatures that had nearly killed them the day before charged forwards through their comrades, shields raised and weapon charging. Even Ren visibly stepped back as the living tanks lumbered towards them with surprising speed.

Six sickly green beams shot towards the shamans. Hao defended the blow with hardly any effort while the others leapt out of the way. The ground where they had been stood moments before was now a glassy crater.

"We need to get out of here!" shouted Yoh as he ducked from a pink spike. "Just keep running and stay alive."

Together they tried to force their way through the crowd but after only a few metres they realised it was hopeless. Horrohorro froze several enemies to the right while Hao incinerated many to the left. Ryu and Faust battered down any that strayed to close to the groups rear while Yoh and Chocolove attempted to cut a path to the exit. Lyserg's full attention was on his new technique that drew any projectile objects to his crystal. This worked fine on the spikes, needles and grenades but the plasma weapons were unaffected.

Just as the group was about to be destroyed under the intense fire, a crash came from the exit, then a squad of human soldiers stormed inside. They tore up the aliens with machine guns, obliterated bigger targets with rockets and cleared out whole sections of enemies with grenades. One even had a flamethrower which barbequed the creatures almost as well as Hao.

Three of the soldiers fell under the barrage of shots.

Ryu was about to finish of a panicking little dog alien when it pulled out two glowing balls, screamed, then ran towards him. Too late did he realise his predicament. An intense blue light exploded around him, alerting the other shamans to the scene.

Ryu had managed to dash backwards just far enough to avoid his death. Instead, his wooden sword, along with his right hand had simply vanished. A large section of his hair had also burnt away.

Faust rushed to his aid while the other shamans used the confusion the soldiers were causing to clear out the room. After another five minutes, Ren split the last enemy from head to toe.

The soldiers fully entered the room, shouting victory cries and shooting several of the dead bodies. The one with the flamethrower headed towards where the shamans had gathered around Ryu.

"Who the hell are you? Your in the middle of an enemy base, no armour and only swords and other random shit as weapons yet some how you all survive and manage to kill scores of the scum. I don't know whether to shoot you, arrest you or shake your hands, though not the lanky guy's I guess." he gestured to Ryu.

"What were those things ?" asked Horrohorro.

"You mean you don't know? Seriously? They were the covenant. Where have you guys been the last few years?"

"Japan." answered Yoh.

"Ah. I see. You came through that portal didn't you."

"Yeah. Those covenant were attacking earth through it." said Yoh

"Well then, welcome to the future." the soldier spat.

Yoh looked back at the portal. No one had noticed during the fighting that its colour had changed to a gore red.

"Its locked kid." said the soldier. "The covenant must have quickly shut it up during the fight." he sneered.

"You mean…" started Lyserg

"Yep. Your all stuck here. By the way, the name's Staff Sergeant Robert Johnson, son of the universally famous Avery Johnson."

The shamans just looked blankly at him. "I'm Yoh." said Yoh to break the growing silence. "The man with the injury is Ryu, the people working on him are Faust and Eliza, the guy with the afro is the comedian Chocolove, green hair is Lyserg, short pants spiky head is Ren and the board head is Horrohorro."

"What about the scary kid over there" Johnson asked.

"I am the future ruler of the world and supreme shaman, Hao. Cross me and you shall die."

"Friendly fellow ain the." grumbled the Staff Sergeant. "Anyway, we have a pickup waiting outside. You may as well join us, you need medical attention, all of you."

Only then did Yoh realise how much pain he was in his body had numerous minor plasma burns and spikes stuck out from his arms, legs and side. Somehow he had also broken his shoulder and at least two ribs. Non of the others looked much better.

"Okay." he agreed.

As they sat aboard what the soldiers called a pelican, waiting to arrive at the space ship _The Salvation of Man_, Ren raised the question: "What were those freaks doing going into the past?"

"Are intel believes they wanted to destroy humanity before it could defend itself. You see, humans and the Covenant have been in a bloody war for many years now. At first they were giving us a royal ass kickin, but humanity managed to claw itself back into a fair fight and with the help of my pop and the Master Chief, we were able to win them." informed Johnson.

"If you won them then how come they had a army waiting to go through the portal." snapped Ren.

"What you saw was nothing. A new leader has assumed command of the Covenant and he is running it far better than any prophet did during the war. He somehow gathered tens of thousands of troops. The majority of their forces left when they realised we were arriving. What you saw was nothing but a distraction." said Johnson

The Pelican reached the ship and docked within a huge hanger. At that moment, Yoh realised his life was about to change forever.

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Retribution sighed. He had known that the humans would arrive at the portal sooner or later but he hadn't expected that much resistance from the other side. No matters, he thought dryly. He still had his vast army. With his tactical genius and the might of his men, he would rise a campaign against humanity that even an army of the demons couldn't stop.

His check had failed but he still had plenty of pieces on his chessboard while the humans were left with measly pawns.

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_A/N: again, sorry for long update gap. I wouldn't have even done this chapter if it wasn't for_ _Nimian Flyer. I hope your liking the story so far, if so, please review. The more I get, the faster I write. It will probably be another lengthy update time unless I get a couple of decent reviews. If anyone has any cool ideas, please tell me._

_Until next time - FWF. _


	7. Life as a Soldier

**Chapter 7: Life as a Soldier.**

The first month on _The Salvation of Man_ passed by in a blur. They had entered what the crew called slipstream and were heading towards earth. The first week had been spent in the medical bay, resting up from their injuries.

Ryu had been christened by the troops as "Metal hand Ryu" and was still getting use to the fact that his hand was now super strong but he could never feel the softness of a beautiful woman's skin. He still had his other hand for that though so he soon got over himself.

The second week, the shamans had been left to do as they pleased. This time was spent gathering information on the Covenant and the future in general as well as the usual shaman training.

Things had gotten more serious for the last two weeks. They had been told that if they wanted to survive they would have to learn how to use the various gun that were at the ships disposal.

They had been down at the firing range for several hours each day. To start with they used simple pistols, battle rifles and assault rifles. Only Horrohorro had any problem with his aim. Hao was hitting the top scores from the start while Ren trained constantly until he could match the fire shaman's aim.

Next came the more specialised weapons. For obvious reasons they couldn't use the rocket launchers but sniper rifles were still available. It was clear from the start that Ren had a knack for sniping, beating the current high score on his first try.

The soldiers had replaced the groups melee weapons with energy swords and gravity hammers. The troops watched in amazement at the skill shown by the shamans. They had found out the hard way that they couldn't cast an oversoul on either without dramatic explosions.

"We're about three days from earth now." Johnson told them as they rested in their improvised barracks.

"Cool-" started Yoh when the ship gave a shudder. "What's going on?" on finished.

"No idea. C'mon to the bridge and we'll find out." replied Johnson. They rushed to the command bridge as the ship continued to shake occasionally. "I'd guess we're under attack." shouted the Sergeant.

The titanium doors to the bridge slid open to reveal all the crew sitting tensely at their stations.

"What's going on Capt'n?" Johnson asked.

The Captain frowned at the shamans then turned to Johnson with a distasteful look on his face. "We appear to be under attack from a fleet of pirates. Jackals by the look of it. I'd guess they have no connection to the Covenant so we are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Our ships still damaged from our last contact with the Covenant so they think they can rob us when we're down."

"Some Jackal pirates are no threat to us" huffed Johnson.

"You still have a lot to learn kid." said the Captain. He motioned to the largest monitor. "They have five ships, we have enough ammunition to take down three at the most."

A man with the insignia of a full sergeant stepped forwards to address the captain. "Sir, may I propose we split the marines into two forces, one half to invade and destroy one of the ships, the other half to stay here and destroy their boarding parties."

The Captain considered this for a moment. "That sounds good to me, Sergeant Cutter. Prepare the two groups then the attack group will take the ship at the far left, we'll take care of the rest."

"Sir, yes Sir." Sergeant Cutter confirmed then turned to Johnson. "R.J. You stay here and protect the ship, I'll take the attack force."

Johnson nodded then Sgt Cutter swiftly exited the bridge.

Within ten minutes all the soldiers had been gathered, grouped and sent to their positions. The shamans had been forced to stay on the ship as they were civilians, much to their distaste. Luckily, they didn't need to find the action, it found them.

No sooner had the group of pelicans left the docking bay, the Jackals ships latched onto the much larger human vassal and began releasing their troops.

"They're all over the ship, sir." shouted a nervous looking soldier.

"To your positions." bellowed Johnson. "Terminate all hostile contacts, seal of their entrances and show them not to mess with humanity."

The marines sprinted to their assigned locations. Johnson beckoned for the shamans to follow him as he too sprinted with a group of marines to where the Jackals were pouring in thickest.

Two sniper beams met them as the group neared the aliens, felling a single marine. The pirates weren't as well equipped as the covenant, nor did they have the vast numbers. What they did have was a well defended area with plenty of cover while the humans had next to non.

An intense fire fight began and looked to be in the aliens favour until Hao created an inferno that decimated the aliens side of the corridor.

"Kinda puts our flamethrowers and fire bomb grenades to shame." muttered a marine in awe.

Suddenly several Jackals with heavy weapons leapt out from behind them, causing the humans to retreat backwards towards the still raging flames. Hao stopped the fires and the group fled into a near by room and sealed its door.

Twelve marines had died, mostly by the heavy weapons which appeared to be a new form of weaponry non of them had seen before. "Wish I'd gotten a better look at those things." sighed Johnson.

The sound of those heavy weapons started up again, this time a lot closer. The plasma rounds smashed into the titanium doors again and again. It wouldn't hold for even another minute.

To make matters worse a message was received by Johnson's comm device. "_This is ensign Tong. The bridge is under attack, repeat the bridge is under attack. They seem to have a new heavy weapon, they'll break through any second- Oh God- Argggh…" _The device went silent.

"We've got to get up there and save the Captain." shouted Johnson.

"We need to get out of here alive first." sneered Ren.

"Open the door." ordered Hao. No one made any move to open it. "Open it I said." he repeated. Johnson nodded to the marine by the controls. The soldier pressed a button and the doors slid open.

Flames shot out and engulfed the corridor. Hao raised an eyebrow when the fire had faded and the Jackals still stood. They had activated a bubble shield at the last second. The shield collapsed then the plasma once again rained down upon them.

Horrohorro stepped forwards and gathered his Furyoku. The Jackals dropped a second bubble shield as ice began to shoot towards them. The shield stopped them from freezing, instead creating an ice dome around the energy bubble. Their was a muffled explosion then the firing started again.

"That should hold them for a few seconds." said the Inuit.

Another door behind them burst open and more Jackals began shooting into the room.

"Get to the bridge!" Johnson roared to the shamans. "We'll take care of these guys."

The shamans sped past the ice dome just as it began to crack. Chocolove went on ahead to scout out the best way to the bridge without enemy contact. Distant gun shots could still be heard but they didn't pass any living marines or Jackals.

Chocolove raced back to them, a section of his afro burnt away. "They've set up turrets outside the bridge and there's a pair of Hunters waiting for us." he reported, no sign of humour in his voice.

"Time to test out our new weapons." said Ryu, flexing his new hand.

"To the armoury."

Ten minutes later the shamans returned and boldly stepped out into the view of the Turrets and Hunters.

"Bye bye." smiled Chocolove. All nine of the shaman group pulled out a rocket launcher and fired. The corridor exploded. The dust cleared and all that remained was an orange splatter across the blackened walls and twisted metal littering the floor.

"We'll have to leave these here. We cant go firing them while on the bridge." stated Lyserg as he dropped the launcher. The others sighed then they to dropped their launches.

There was a muffled scream from behind the battered door that led to the bridge. Ren stabbed at the controls and the door jerked open.

The Captain and the other bridge crew, along with a few marines, had fortified the back corner of the large room. All the consoles and screens were destroyed and plasma and blood coated the walls and floor.

Seven Jackals sprayed the defences with their strange heavy plasma weapons. Another five lay dead on the ground, riddled with bullets. At either side of the door stood a huge Hunter.

Lyserg, Horrohorro, Faust and Chocolove all targeted the Jackals that had now turned their powerful guns on the shamans. Yoh, Ren, Hao and Ryu turned to face the Hunters.

The four fighting the Jackals rolled across the room, dodging the boiling bullets that flew at them. Horrohorro tried to freeze them but he couldn't concentrate long enough to summon enough power. Chocolove leapt around the room but couldn't get close enough to deal any damage.

Meanwhile Yoh and Hao barraged their Hunter with hundreds of bullets while easily swaying away from the monster's clumsy attacks. The bullets merely pinged off of the thick armour, hardly even scratching the metal.

The second Hunter had its gun arm wrestled by Ryu as Ren repeatedly shot it in it's face with his sniper rifle. Ryu was thrown against a smashed screen then the Hunter shot its ion cannon at Ren. He side stepped it but his sniper was caught in the blast and melted.

Chocolove leapt in close to the Jackals, drawing their full attention to him. Lyserg shot out his dowsing crystal to wrap around the whole group of aliens. With the enemies unable to move Horrohorro had enough time to summon up his powers and turn the creatures into popsicles.

They moved to help out the others with the Hunters when the door slid open and another five Jackals ran in. They seemed more scared than angry, running blindly forwards away from some unseen foe.

A hail of machine gun bullets cut them down as though they were butter. A woman walked through the door holding one of the large turrets that was suppose to be a stationary gun.

"Ah, that's where you were, my sweet Eliza." cooed Faust.

The first Hunter fired, taking Hao by surprise. Fire shot out from around the shaman in an attempt to stop the undo gable attack. Hellfire battled with plasma but after a second the green energy won out and hit Hao's side. The fire had blocked most of the damage but the force still knocked him from his feet.

Yoh threw his gun to the side and drew his sword and the antiquity while summoning Amidamaru to his side. "Time to do this the old fashioned way. Double spirit medium!"

There was a flash of blue light closely followed by the blue blade lopping off the Hunter's cannon arm. It swung around just in time for it's shield to block Yoh's second slash.

A red flash lit the room. The Hunter's shield arm dropped to the floor. Hao was stood behind him with his own double spirit medium held in his hands.

The beast looked rather pathetic now with now arms. It tried to charge into Yoh but was unbalanced and fell face first to the ground. With a click of his fingers, Hao created an inferno that consumed the Hunter's body. Hundreds of small orange worms slithered out of the fire, writhing as the flames slowly killed them all.

Ren grabbed an energy sword from his belt and activated it. As Ryu distracted the monster, Ren jumped onto its back and stabbed repeatedly at the soft orange worms. With bone shattering force, the hunter smashed the shaman into the wall behind him.

There was a tap on the Hunter's shoulder and it turned. Ryu smiled at it before punching it with all of his force in its face. The metal hand caused heavy damage, dinting its helmet into its soft head. The next second ryu's metal hand had wrapped around the Hunter's throat and began to squeeze.

Ren ran it through on his energy sword from behind, almost skewering Ryu in the process.

The bridge crew cautiously stepped out of the safety of their fortifications once they were sure there was no more enemies nearby. The Captain grudgingly thanked them unlike the rest of the crew who swarmed around them singing their praise.

On one of the still working screens they witnessed one of the Jackal pirate ships blow up. There was a great cheer before everyone was busy at their stations trying to survive the remaining enemy ships.

An additional alarm began to tone, alerting the men of the two new ships that had entered this section of space.

Yoh nearly cursed until he realised that they were human ships.

A voice crackled to life over the communication desk. "We'd been told that there was a damsel in distress in this quadrant. I don't see any though so I suppose we'll just have to help you lot instead."

Everyone cheered as they watched the Jackals being blown to space scrap.

"Next stop, Earth." called the Captain.

_A.N. - sorry again about the long gap between updates. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please, please review._

_**Important. Please read.**__ this story is going to be put on hold for a while so I might not update for a long time. I promise I will continue writing but I have three reasons it must wait._

_1. I have another project that I am working on that is far more important than a fan fiction and may change my life. I need all of my attention on that._

_2. I rushed into writing this story because I thought a Shaman King/Halo crossover would be cool- which it is. I didn't think up a real story though. I also feel that the quality of the story isn't as good as it could be. For these reasons I want some time to actually plan how I want the story to go._

_3. To avoid other long update times after I start to write again I'm going to write a few chapters ahead so I can update weekly when the time comes._

_Hope you understand. Thank you for reading. Speak with you all again someday lol. Till then, bye._


	8. Spartan

Chapter 8: Spartan.

_**Merry Christmas!**_

_**A.N. I have returned from the depths of hell to write for you once more. As anyone that's been reading so far knew, I had a looong break from writing. Now Shaman King Combat Evolved is back in commission. The story is entering the main arc now and the quality of writing should be improved so the story should be better in every way. **_

_**If anyone is interested, I dropped the story to write my own piece of original fiction that I am putting forward for publication. If anyone has any advice for me or may be interested in reviewing it for me I would be very happy to listen**_

_**Back to the story at hand. Count this as my Christmas present to you all, hope you enjoy.**_

* * *

**Earth**

**It looked more beautiful than Yoh could ever have imagined. He had seen the beauty of nature on its surface and seen pictures of it from space but nothing could have prepared him for the view before him.**

**The planet was no longer green and blue like in his time but grey and blue. They were merely background colours though. Millions a sparkling lights of hundreds of different colours lit the land and sea like an expensive Christmas decoration. The lack of nature was horrific but still the sight was simply stunning.**

"**Bastards." sneered Hao from his position beside his twin. "Look what these filthy humans have done to our planet. They even have the nerve to spread out and infest other planets too."**

"**I find myself agreeing with Flamebait for once." growled Ren as he eyed the ball of concrete and metal that had once been green and pleasant. **

"**I do not care what it looks like as long as I can search for a special place and meet with the ladies of the future. The women onboard all scare me and these tight confines oppress my soul." Stated Ryu thoughtfully.**

**Johnson junior, as much of the crew called him, laughed behind their backs. "You think when we land you'll just be able to stroll of and flirt or destroy humanity or something. Man you guys really are dumb. Most likely you'll end up as some test subject for some ONI spook or something like that. Anyway, wake blue hair up and gather your shit together then head down to the hanger."**

**So to speak, none of them had any possessions aboard the ship other than the clothes they came in and their weapons. Clean clothes had been provided throughout the journey but they were all to be left behind. So Yoh walked through **_**The Salvation of Man**_** 's corridors one final time with nothing but his green trousers, sandals, open beige shirt and his sword that was leant against his shoulder. Oh, and of course his cassette player and headphones that had received much ridicule from the soldiers. **

**He entered the hanger to find the other shamans waiting around a series of Pelican dropships mingling with the marines that to awaited transport planet side. Yoh headed over to where Horrohorro, Ren and Johnson stood and flicked his music player on. The music eased his mind of the worries regarding the problems they would face with the authorities below.**

"**Is everyone ready?" shouted a over dramatic soldier in a pilot suit. He was smoking despite the fact it was against regulation and his hair was longer than was allowed. "Just so you all know, I've been drinking so this is gonna be a bumpy ride." he laughed before climbing aboard the pelican designated for the shamans.**

"**No way is that dude driving us!" roared Horrohorro as they watched the pilot belch loudly before stumbling into the pilot's seat.**

"**That's Jake Fletcher. He's ex-Helljumper, best pilot you'll ever meet but made as a bloody hatter. All ODST are touched in the head and that guy is more so than the rest. Just ignore him and you'll be fine. He can more than look after himself and everyone else if need be." smiled Johnson with a crazy smile of his own.**

"**That's comforting." sweatdropped the Ainu. **

"**How come he isn't ODST now? I thought it was a job for life." asked Lyserg with a worried glance at the vehicle.**

**Johnson looked reminiscent for a moment and chuckled to himself. "He was court-martialled and banned from ever becoming a soldier again. He slept with the wife of a captain then, when confronted about it he punched the captain square in the nose then kicked him repeatedly in the groin when he was down before celebrating the act with eleven pints and a small fortune in weed.**

"**WHY THE HELL IS HE OUR PILOT THEN?" screamed the ice shaman.**

"**They never said he couldn't become a pilot. Ah, the joys of loopholes." grinned Johnson happily.**

**Every shaman sweatdropped except for Hao who just climbed into the ship with an angry look upon his face. After the fight with the Jackals he had grown increasingly bitter and homicidal with each passing day. Yoh sighed as he thought this, he had thought his twin had finally accepted humanity and was trying to change his ways. Evidently not though.**

**Everyone boarded the Pelicans, the shamans in the one piloted by Fletcher, the marines and other nonessential staff filling the rest. It wasn't a classy way to travel but it did the job. The engines fired up then one by one the dropships filed through the giant airlocks and into the darkness of space.**

**After an initial deep space summersault caused by Fletcher, the journey was uneventful. No covenant, pirates or any hostiles. They passed the giant brooding shapes that Fletcher called Orbital MAC platforms, massive guns that could decimate covenant ships like they were made of plastic. Nearly a hundred surrounded the planet although many looked badly damaged or under repair. Three hundred had orbited Earth during the alien assault of the planet and the wreckage of the two hundred destroyed platforms and several ships, both human and covenant littered the nearby stretches of space.**

**Upon re-entry through the planet's atmosphere flame opened up around the ship like the petals of a flower. Hao played idly with it, making flames spiral out from the ship in random patterns, almost absentmindedly. **

"**Hey, any of youz want some smokes or a can of larger? You'll definitely need them by time ONI is through with you." said Fletcher. He was lent over the back of the pilot's seat offering them a can of cheap larger in one hand and a crumpled pack of cigarettes with the other. **

"**WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?!" screamed Horrohorro. Your suppose to be driving!" he snapped.**

**Fletcher laughed off the comment until he felt steel brush against his throat. Ren held his sword, Bao-lei, firmly against the ODST's neck with an agitated look on his face.**

"**Fly this thing properly or you will leave here with at least one major part of you body missing. I'm not heartless though, I'll let you choose which part." stated the short shaman bluntly.**

"**Yes sir!" whimpered Fletcher before cowering back into his seat with a mock hurt expression.**

**The time between then and landing was filled with awkward silence. Hao's mood seeped from him like a bad smell. The others knew how easily he could anger and so decided to stay quiet and avoid any potential wrath. **

**Finally Yoh worked up enough resolve and sat himself in the empty seat next to his twin. "What's buggin' ya? I know your never cheerful but you don't seem yourself." **

**The fire shaman sneered. "That is because this is not myself. Being kind and being around people is not who I am. I see the filth that humans have created and it makes me want to kill them. In our time, the effects are there but they could still be stopped. Forests and animals could still be saved. Here… here it is too late. The entire planet is already consumed. It just strengthens my conviction that they should be wiped outlike the scum they are."**

**Yoh didn't know how to respond like most of the time when he spoke to his brother. He too hated industry and the destruction of forests and animals and looking at what earth had become had hurt him inside. A part of his mind even agreed with Hao but he just couldn't bring himself to hate all of humanity.**

**Fletcher called back to them, breaking Yoh from his thoughts. "ETA is five minutes guys. Prepare for a warm and loving welcome from the happy elves that are the ONI spooks." **

**The minutes sped by until the pelican crashed onto a landing pad after narrowly dodging a tall skyscraper. Even before they left the craft the shamans could see a group of marines waiting nearby, all fully armed.**

**The shamans exited cautiously, weapons held at the ready and spirits at their side. The soldiers surrounded them and aimed their battle rifles at unimportant areas such as limb and groin.**

**A stern looking man in a plain grey uniform and cropped blonde hair stepped out from the marines and stood intimidating close to Yoh.**

"**From this moment on you are under the direct control of the Office of Naval Intelligence. You are to do exactly what you are told, when you are told to do it. Hand over your, eh…weapons, to the guards. On the double!" recited the man.**

**Chocolove chuckled to himself, drawing harsh looks from everyone present. "So you guy's study belly buttons."**

**The ONI spook glared knives at afro shaman causing him to cower behind Ren. Ren swatted him away then sneered at the spook.**

"**What, no warm welcome. How disappointing ."**

"**You will hand your weapons over now or I will be forced to order my men to fire." ordered the man with a cruel twist of his lips that may have been a smile.**

**Hao stepped forwards and pulled Yoh away from the spook. "Fire. What do you know of fire." the shaman clicked his fingers and half of the landing pad burst into flames. "I could incinerate you all before you could even pull the trigger.**

**The spook smirked openly now. "You think that we don't have any information on you freaks. If you were merely humans from the past then we would have no interest in you. It's your abilities that we want, they would be very useful against the remnants of the Covenant. As such, we didn't come here unprepared."**

**The spook pressed a button concealed within his uniform's cuff and five metal rods rose from the ground in a pentagon around the shamans. Blue ripples crackled across their surfaces then lightning like bolts of electricity shot outwards at the shaman's feet. Only then did the group notice they were stood upon a metal plate.**

**Electricity crackled into the metal and up through the shaman's legs. Hao tried to burn the rods and men around them but the jolts of blistering energy that pulsed through him made it impossible to focus on the flame, instead making it erratic and uncontrolled. One by one the shamans fell, even the fire shaman couldn't stand against it for long. Very soon only Ren was left standing.**

"**Fool." sneered Ren. Thin smoke rose from his body and his muscles twitched but he was still in a fighting condition. "I'm somewhat resistant to electric, it runs in the family. Hard look. **

**He readied his sword and began to charge when he was smashed across the back of his head by an ODST that had been behind him.**

"**Good work men." said the spook dismissively. "Get them transported to the Forge without delay, we have much to do in little time.**

* * *

**Yoh groaned loudly as he faded from the peace of unconsciousness into the pain and noise of the waking world. He looked around him and could see all of his friends in varying states of consciousness. They were in a small, bare room with white walls. There were no objects present and every item the shamans had had upon their capture was gone.**

**He sat up and instantly regretted it. His muscles burned and his head felt like it had been used as a football. "What happened?" he moaned.**

"**ONI happened." snarled Ren. Only he, Lyserg and Faust appeared to be awake other than Yoh.**

**Then something caught Yoh's attention, or the lack of something that was. "Where's Hao?"**

"**A couple of those bastards came by to check on us but they didn't realise that Flamebait didn't need any weapons or channels like us. They left here in a vase." answered Ren with a brief laugh. "For some reason the head spooks didn't like that so transferred him to a "Specialist" cell.**

**Amidamaru floated through a wall into the shaman's prison. "Yoh-donno, I have scouted out this base while you were unconscious. I am sorry to say there is no way of escape."**

"**Did you see where they took Hao?"**

"**Yes. He is kept within some form of capsule that lies within a tank of strange orange water. He appeared okay although has no way of releasing himself. I tried to enter the liquid to speak with him but I could not. The water seems to block spirit particles." answered the ghost with a worried expression.**

**The conversation was cut short when the thick white coated iron door that locked them within the room clicked then slowly swung open. The same ONI spook that met them outside entered, flanked by two ODST.**

"**You are all to come with us to the briefing room." he stated bluntly.**

"**Where is Hao?" Yoh asked, trying to remain civil.**

"**Your hot headed friend shall be in the briefing as well. Now wake up the others and don't try anything funny. This entire facility has similar contraptions as what you witnessed on the landing pad."**

**The shamans obeyed as there was no other option. To add insult to their already injured pride they were all forced to wear blindfolds as they were led through the facility. It mattered little though as Lyserg's dowsing skill could find them where ever they wanted anyway.**

**The blind walk seemed to last far longer than it should have. Yoh was sure that they were being led in circles to confuse them or just plain annoy them. Eventually though they were stopped and agile hands untied the blindfolds.**

**The room they were in was small and dark. A single light hung from above and below it stood a long oval table of dark mahogany. One wall was covered in screen, maps and statistics while the other had a window that looked out into a large empty room. All the seats on the table were already filled with dark, shady looking men of varying ages. A row of cheaper chairs lined the windowed wall facing towards the table. Hao occupied one chair, the others were empty.**

"**Please sit." said one of the men with short white hair. You counted twelve men as he and the other shamans filled the chairs.**

"**We shall cut straight to the point." stated a second, younger, man. "We want your powers, you all probably want to go home. You can't go home until we find out from the Covenant how to open those portals but we cant find that out without strong soldiers.**

"**So we help you to help ourselves?" said Ryu. He had found no hair gel at all since he came though the portal so his strange hairstyle choice had been dropped and his hair was now touching his shoulders.**

"**Yes. You have natural powers that we do not so we will train you and make you the best you can be. With your aid we destroy the Covenant once and for all and in the process find out how to send you back into the past." confirmed the older man.**

"**What exactly do you have in mind?" sneered Ren. They all knew that they had no choice but to do as these people said, for now at least.**

**A different man, this one with cropped black hair and a scar over his right eye pressed a button on a small remote and one of the screens on the opposite wall lit up. "Watch this carefully."**

**The UNSC symbol appeared in the centre of the screen then an image of a debris littered street replaced it. It looked to be a recording of some battle. Several human and grunt corpses lay amidst the ruin but many more hid behind rubble, walls and wrecked vehicles. Bullets and plasma crisscrossed in midair, destroying yet more of the scenery.**

**A chaotic ball of green plasma shot across the street like a meteorite before hitting the destroyed body of a car . Metal melted and boiled and the impact force threw both vehicle and the soldier behind it into the air. **

**A second marine peered out of his cover to shoot at the fusion cannon wielding grunt when a thin beam of blue energy caught him between the eyes. He fell back lifelessly. The humans were quickly becoming overwhelmed. **

**A red armoured brute chieftain charged the closest human cover, its gravity hammer raised above its head. It smashed it down and the rubble exploded, crushing the marine behind it. The brute swung again and smashed the head of it's weapon into the chest of the next human. The blow imploded the man's chest and sent his bloody body flying high into the sky.**

**The chieftain was seconds away from bringing its hammer down onto a third marine's head when a green and black hand shot out and caught the weapon by its handle. The ape growled and struggled to free its weapon but the hand held it firmly even against the brutes vast strength.**

**The hand belonged to an green armoured giant. An orange visor stared emotionlessly at it's foe.**

**The brute struck out with one of its huge hands but the giant ducked under the blow before delivering a lightning fast knee to the beast's gut while still holding onto the hammer. The brute doubled over and coughed blood but was fighting again in seconds with renewed strength.**

**The armoured soldier kicked at the brute who staggered backwards. In that moment the green man drew an assault rifle from its back with its free arm and spayed the monkey with bullets. The chieftain howled and charged at the giant but stopped promptly when it's prey dodged the hammer and punched at the brute's fangs. Teeth shattered leaving a hole where the giants hand hit.**

**The mythical being pulled it's hand from the brutes mouth but a blue light shone out through the hole. The chieftain noticed this and screamed, opening its mouth to reveal a glowing blue ball attached to its tongue. A second later the brute's ugly head exploded into a mist of blood and brains.**

**The surviving marines cheered but the super soldier wasted no time with celebrations. It's assault rifle was swapped with a battle rifle and in a series of short controlled bursts, all of the grunts, brutes and jackal snipers lay dead. **

**The screen flickered then went black. The shamans were staring at the screen in amazement. Not even a shaman could cause that kind of damage with so little effort. It was like watching a god smite his foes with easy flicks of his wrists.**

**The spook with cropped black hair and the scar smiled at their expression although there was no kindness or humour in the expression. "That was a Spartan. The Master Chief to be precise. He was somewhat known as a one man army against the Covenant but now he is gone, as are the other Spartans. I am sickened to admit it but it was them that won us the war. The war has resurfaced now though and we no longer have any of our "Saviours". you will fill that role."**

"**No way dude! You mean you want to train us to be like that?" shouted HorroHorro with excitement as he pointed to the blank screen.**

"**That is exactly what we want. With your unique powers you could all become five times stronger than the Chief. All you need is some training and some experience." said the elderly man.**

"**And the cool armour?" asked the Ainu.**

"**Yes, and the armour. Yours will be the next generation designs though." replied the ol man, electing a series of smiles and wide eyes from various shamans.**

"**Are you in?" asked the scarred spook.**

"**What choice do we have?" scoffed Ren.**

"**Is that a yes?" pushed the man.**

"**Hell yeah!" screamed HorroHorro. The others nodded with varying degrees of acceptance.**

"**Training starts tomorrow then. You will be led to your new barrack then I would advise you on getting plenty of sleep. Your trainer gives no mercy."**

**So the shamans were lead back through the confusing maze work of corridors, all the while wondering what the hell they had gotten themselves into.**

**000000000000000**

_**A.N. Well there we go. SKCE is back in business. Like I said, sorry about the huge wait I gave you all. I hope that this chapter was worth the wait (probably not but, meh). Expect the next chapter on new year's day. Please review and give me your much wanted feedback. So, until 2010, bye bye.**_


	9. Hell's Bootcamp

9. Hell's Boot Camp.

_**A.N. - Happy new year! Here is that promised chapter, hope you enjoy. Its Spartan time!**_

**000000000000000**

**It was 5am and not a creature stirred. All was quiet and peaceful. Soothing dreams filled every human's mind and all worries were gone, for this night at least. **

"**AAARRRGGGHHH!!!" screamed Yoh as he was ripped painfully from his dreams of burgers. Sharp pain rocketed through his nerves and his muscles spasm d briefly. His eyes shot open to see a man stood over him with a taser held by the shaman's stomach. Other men stood over the remaining shamans. Each looked like they too had received the same wakeup.**

"**Rise and shine maggots." announced an Asian man that looked like he was in charge of the others.**

**Every shaman looked ready to attack the men but their weapons had not been returned and the marines all had guns. Grudgingly they all climbed out of bed and lined up facing the man.**

"**Are you our "trainer that gives no mercy"?" asked Yoh after suppressing a side aching yawn.**

"**Me, I'm a bloody angel compared to that one. ONI did well when they found that evil creature to train you. I'm just here to get you up and onto the training field. I'm Staff Sergeant Kessar but "Sir" will be adequate from you maggots." **

**Kessar led the group through several corridors until they reached a large iron door. Kessar typed in a code on the door side consol and with a click it opened. Beyond the door was a huge courtyard with an array of obstacles, vehicles and targets. Despite the severity and hardship it all implied it looked like a giant playground. **

**The group lined up on what looked to be a parade ground and waited. Kessar smirked evilly at them as they waited. "So, you guys looking forward to your bone breaking training? You don't look nearly as worried as you should."**

"**Whoever it is, they cant be harder than what we're used to." muttered Yoh. "Anna is the harshest trainer in the history of mankind."**

"**So is Pirika."**

"**And my damned father."**

**Kessar shrugged. "We'll see. Very soon it would seem."**

**The shamans looked to where the staff sergeant was pointing and cowered in fear at the sit before them. Mass whimpers and widened eyes were the base reaction to the person that was walking towards them. From that point on the shamans knew that they would be worked to death, given no rest and generally wish they were dead. **

"**Anna!" Yoh gulped, half in fear, half in relief at seeing her again. She wore an UNSC uniform similar to that of Kessar's but she wore a skirt rather than trousers and still had her bead necklace and red bandana. **

"**What? I don't understand. How are you here?" Yoh garbled.**

"**Quite." snapped the girl. "Is that how you act around a superior officer?"**

"**Superior officer?" sweat dropped the entire group. A fiery glare from the girl got them all stood their straightest and giving her a perfect salute.**

"**You all disappeared through that portal, so we followed. No one noticed us in the fighting. A group of soldiers took us aboard their ship and we arrived her before you as we didn't have to fight our way here. ONI took an instant liking to me and hired me to train some new recruits. Coincidence apparently."**

"**We?" questioned her fiancé.**

"**Yes. We." replied Anna. From behind her legs stepped out a foot tall boy.**

"**Manta!" cheered Yoh who ran to greet his friend only to be punched by Anna. **

"**Did I order you to move?" **

"**But Anna." Yoh moaned. He was silenced by another of her terrifying glances.**

"**I will be training you until you are ready to become true Spartans. You are all already fitter than most humans but your undisciplined and inexperienced in modern fighting. Small-fry apparently is going to be useful for something, ONI seem to have taken an interest in him. He'll be your new tech-guy."**

**Manta seemed to inflate at her words. "Yeah. The scientists are training me so I can repair you weapons and armour. They said I have intelligence far beyond my years and time, plus I have the knowledge on ghosts and shamans that they don't." he beamed.**

**Yoh and the others frowned. "Manta, just be careful around those spooks, they do nothing that isn't for their own gain. Don't trust them and watch your back around them."**

"**Oh. I-I thought you would be happy." his face scrunched up slightly and his lower lip trembled. "I've, eh, got some project to work on. I guess I'll see you guys later." Manta said before running back inside the base.**

"**Manta! We didn't mean it like tha-" Yoh started to shout but he was cut of by Anna.**

"**Shorty is the least of your concerns. Training starts now. You see that bell?" she asked as she pointed to what looked like some kind of obstacle course. Atop of a tall structure at its end sat a silver bell. "Ring that bell as fast as you can without using any of your powers. Go!"**

"**Easy." chuckled Choco as he sped forwards. The first section seemed to be an empty field but after only a second of running the ground exploded around him. A quick summersault saved his life.**

"**A mine field! What the hell kind of training is that!" screamed HorroHorro.**

**Ren sneered before leaping forwards. He dodged to the side as flames erupted around him but he didn't miss a step. Yoh followed behind him albeit with a lot less grace. Ryu looked from the flames to his hair dismally before charging forwards with his metal arm held out before him. Faust calmly walked through the maelstrom with Eliza like they were on a romantic walk through a park.**

"**HorroHorro had decided to wait until the others had blown themselves up then pass the field unhindered. Choco now just ran forwards screaming and Hao had used the force of a mine to throw himself into the air and to the other side in one swift leap.**

**Ren exited the field first followed closely by Hao. The next section was a stretch of path covered in barbed wire. Not just a sheet of the stuff to crawl under but a full maze of varying heights and directions. Three turrets were set up on either side of the path and at their side was piles of real ammunition.**

**Both shamans set of at the same time and without pause the bullets started to spit around them. They weren't just a distraction like in usual training, they were really aiming to kill. Without thought, Ren pounced at the first turret to the left while Hao did the same to the left. The Marines were no match for shamans in close combat so very soon both held a turret but neither could turn enough to shoot at the remaining ones.**

**Yoh sped into the maze and didn't dare to slow as bullets pinged around him. Choco was very close behind him. Lyserg was nowhere to be seen. Ryu was seconds behind Choco, Faust was still strolling along humming peacefully and HorroHorro had only just began to run.**

**Suddenly Ryu was a blur passing Yoh by while he tried to find his way through the labyrinth of spiked metal wire. Ryu ran straight through it with his metal arm held out before him. The wire snapped and twisted at his passing, tearing at his clothes and skin but he was making a definite path forwards.**

**Yoh was no fool. He abandoned the true unfound path and instead ran behind Ryu. Choco, Faust and HorroHorro all followed suit. Ren and Hao destroyed the final two turrets simultaneously then hopped back onto the course ahead of the others. Lyserg was still not in sight.**

**The final section was a large mix-matched structure with bars, spikes, ropes, ladders, bumps and all manner of traps dotting around it. Nothing was still either. Everything moved, turned, twisted and shook.**

**Choco had the clear advantage of agility but Ren and Hao were tenacious and both determined never to lose. Yoh was clumsy, HorroHorro lazy and Faust was a necromancer, he had no need of a fit body like that of the other shamans. **

**It was looking to be a near draw between Ren and Choco. Ren and Hao had had a head start but Choco's speed and ability gave him a great edge. Hao's main power was in his flames, which he could not use, while Ren was physically the strongest and fittest present. Choco and Ren were mere feet away from their goal when the bell suddenly rang out. **

**Every shaman paused and looked up. Lyserg was stood next to the bell with no sign of strain on his face.**

"**HOW!?!" shouted every other shaman as one.**

"**Anna never said run the course, she said just ring the bell. There was a path around the course that led straight to the tower." he stated with a smile.**

"**Fools." shouted Anna coldly from below. "Show some initiative. Right, only Lyserg gets dinner today. Everyone else, one hundred push-ups."**

* * *

**The next month passed in much the same way. The shamans were awoken at 5am with tasers, sent on a ten mile jog before breakfast, given a complicated and dangerous obstacle course then strenuous exercises like push-ups and squats. After a dinner of high protein food and milk there were tactic lessons followed by weapons training. Next a mock mission would be set up for them to complete and then afterwards they would fight each other either in close combat or range to gain experience.**

**All of the shamans were now fitter than ever. Newly discovered muscles bulged slightly and they were twice as strong and fast as before they had started. The spooks had tried to force them to have regulation length hair but after over two dozen marines were hospitalised they grudgingly dismissed that idea.**

"**The time has come." stated Anna bluntly as she addressed them in the combat court. "Today is when you become Spartans. Your bodies will be augmented and your skills will all be increased threefold. I'll be blunt, this process is dangerous. The last time it was used for the Spartan II candidates about seventy were permanently crippled or died. The process has been refined since then but threat still remains. This is a vital mission that must be completed so you all better survive."**

**As a collective the group gulped. They were led into the hospital wing where they had had many visits since the start of their training. Rather than the normal equipment and basic beds it was packed with high-tech machines and special beds that had more buttons and wires than Manta's laptop.**

**Johnson waited by the entrance as they passed. He nodded to them reassuringly and parted some spiritual and meaningful advice before they walked to their potential deaths "Hold onto life even if it kills ya."**

**While they tried to figure this statement out they were led to various beds that had their names attached. Each was strapped in and injected with some kind of sedative. Yoh could feel the drug forcing him into unconsciousness. Just before he passed out he saw Anna beside him.**

"**Survive." she whispered softy. It was the last thing to register into Yoh's mind before he was asleep.**

**00000000000000000**

**Yoh awoke to a world where only pain existed. His eyes stung and were unseeing, waves of static noise assaulted his throbbing ears and every muscle and nerve burned like the most potent of acids pumped through his body rather than blood. He tried to lift his arm but the pain increased tenfold to an unbearable level. The pain overwhelmed him and he slipped back into unconsciousness. **

**He awoke a second time and flaming daggers of pain still shot through him. This time though he found that his mind was clearer so he could better control his failing body. Eyes opened and darkness faded away to reveal a blurry white room. Background static still crackled against his eyes but there was also an annoying beep and talking.**

**With a cringe of pain that created more pain, Yoh lifted his arm up to rub his aching head but pulled his arm away suddenly. He pattered around before screaming.**

"**MY HAIR!"**

**The talking stopped and two scientists rushed to Yoh's side. One injected a light blue liquid into his arm while the other held his struggling form down.**

"**You never said that a side effect would be loss of hair. Argh!" whined Yoh frantically with tears in his eyes.**

"**At least he seems ok." muttered the man that held him to the bed. **

"**Rest Spartan." ordered a third voice. It was Anna.**

"**Anna. Look what they've done. My hair…"**

"**Shut up and keep still. Hair will grow back. Your being ordered a solid weeks rest so if I catch you out of bed there will be hell to pay. Got it?"**

"**Yes Ma'am." gulped the shaman. "Wait, how are the others?" **

"**Choco, HorroHorro and Lyserg have yet to wake. Ryu seems to be suffering more than you but is in a stable condition while Ren and Hao are in much the same state as you except they hospitalised several staff when they realised they were bald. Faust is already days ahead of you recovery wise. His body adjusted to the changes without much hassle." **

**Content that his friends were safe, Yoh allowed himself to abandon his pains to the depths of slumber.**

**000000000000**

**Seven days was an awful long time just to lay in bed. They were all use to long hospital stays and their bodies certainly needed the rest but being alone in their own separate rooms while being unable to move from the bed was beginning to where thin.**

**Faust had been allowed to wander around after the third day and was now spending his time studying the medical practices of the future. He took a strong interest in the augmentation process and had gone as far as to augment a goldfish so it could breath on land.**

**On the seventh day a scientist arrived at each shamans room to report that they could leave and should report immediately for debriefing. They all met for the first time since the operation within the room they had been taken to on their first day at the base.**

**Yoh was amazed how different everyone looked now. Without hair the shamans looked completely different but that wasn't the only thing that had changed. Each had grown several extra foot and had muscles that, while not looking huge and bulky, looked easily able to crush a man's head between them.**

"**Welcome Spartans. Nice to see you all managed to survive." greeted the elderly spook. "We're here to brief you on your new bodies so pay close attention."**

**A woman with short black hair, tanned skin and a white scientist jacket began to speak. "The augmentations where much the same as those used on the Spartan II project so your bones are highly strengthened, your muscle mass increased and your organs improved for increased strain. Your reaction times will have increased and your skin will be far tougher than normal. We have gone a few steps further for you though as you're the next generation and have special abilities. With the help of your short friend, Manta, we were able to add extra elements that would increase your spirit powers."**

"**A new organ specially designed to produce the power you call Furyoku so your maximum levels have increased and its recharge rate doubled. As an extra we also decided to combine your DNA with those of other animals to increase key traits."**

"**Yoh was combined with the wolf so his senses are more acute and his speed and surprisingly his Furyoku are also raised. Choco was given the obvious choice of the jaguar making his normal abilities more like his spirit combination. Ryu has the snake, improving his reaction times, speed and his sense of taste. Ren was given the tiger so strength, speed and general ferocity are up. Hao has the mighty Lion which provides a boost to strength speed and senses. Lyserg is a cat, fierce little buggers with a large natural supply of Furyoko that will double his current level. Faust was given the starfish as it has regenerative abilities and last but not least, HorroHorro was given a penguin."**

"**A penguin? They all get cool stuff and I get a penguin." roared the ice shaman**

"**Yes. Penguin increases your ice control and funnily enough makes you resistant to Furyoku based attacks." replied the female scientist. **

"**But were fighting people with guns, not other shamans."**

"**Tough. Anyway, that was just a basic overview. You do gain more unique things from each creature but we are not sure to what extent so we shall leave it to you to find out." answered the woman.**

**The elderly spook coughed slightly then addressed the shamans. "Train lightly for the next few days as you will be unused to your new bodies. Once you all can use your bodies to their full potential once more we will introduce you to your Mark VI MJLNIR armour. Till then, you are dismissed."**

**0000000000000000**

**Seventy purple ships dominated a section of space in a sector of unknown universe. Fighter ships patrolled the area and crisscrossed between the giant, whale like mega structures that formed the Covenant fleet.**

**The Prophet of Retribution floated through the fleets capital ship, **_**The Cleansing Flame**_**, until he entered one of it's huge docks. Hundreds of grunts shifted objects while the jellyfish like Engineers worked upon the fighters or at consuls. **

"**My Lord." growled a white haired brute respectfully.**

"**Are all of your men assembled, Chieftain?"**

"**We are few in numbers now but five hundred of my brothers will be under your command for this battle."**

"**Only five hundred. I had hoped for more. It was a good job that I have gained new warriors for our cause." **

**The brute looked puzzled. "Sir?"**

"**I personally negotiated with a newly discovered race and now they hold a place within our Covenant. They call themselves Khashin." **

**As the prophet stopped speaking, one of the phantoms lowered its gravity beam and a lone figure descended to the ground. It was slightly taller than a brute but its whole body was thinner than that of a human. Its skin was fully black, as where the scales of metal that covered most of it. A strange looking scythe was slung across its back and its head was like a pyramid with its tip facing upwards and a dark red ponytail extended out from it, reaching down to what would be the small of its back. Its malicious eyes were mere red slits.**

_**I Am Here. Who Should I Kill? **_**Asked a voice that had no sound. It spoke straight into the head of all creatures present. It deeply disturbed the Chieftain.**

"**What are your forces status, Mao?" asked the prophet.**

_**Three Hundred Warriors Are At Your Command. All Of Our Ships Are Ready. We Await Your Order Only.**_

"**Only three hundred!" roared the Brute. "What can three hundred of these weeds do that five hundred of my men cannot achieve?"**

"**Much." replied the prophet calmly. "Do not worry, you and your men will still lead the attack. Think of them as support so that your forces aren't spread to thinly. Just do not underestimate them."**

"**Understood." he growled dejectedly. "What of my cousins?" **

"**They are all awaiting for deployment. With their aid the worthless humans will have nowhere to run." smiled Retribution cruelly.**

"**And **_**them**_?" the brute nearly spat the words out. He wasn't addressing the Khashin though.

"_**They**_ will be dropped elsewhere to your men so do not worry. This battle will all but destroy humanity and then we will have no need of there services." replied Retribution in a tone that clearly said that to argue on the matter was to regret it. "Now prepare your men, we attack very soon."

* * *

_A.N. Hope you enjoyed it. Also, hope you all have a good 2010. Anyway, next chapter some real fighting begins between the newly enhanced shamans and the new generation of the Covenant. Also I'll be splitting the shamans into two teams as having eight main characters in every scene is hard to write and people don't get mentioned enough, plus there are all the spirits that I hardly get to write into the story so hope you don't mind. Please review. Till next time goodbye. - FWF_


	10. The Next Generation of Warfare

**10. The Next Generation of War.**

The pin dropped. It descended as though through a sea of syrup or honey, cart wheeling through the air lazily. A deafening bang echoed throughout the room that the watching marines thought was but one shot from a gun hit six targets, each a foot apart. The pin hit the ground.

Yoh whistled in an impressed way as he holstered his pistol. He could now fire off six rounds at six different bull's-eyes in the time it took for a dropped pin to hit the floor. "Sweet." he muttered under his breath.

All of the Spartans were now in basic control of their bodies. The differences after the augmentation process were startling. Yoh felt that he could take on twenty of his old selves without even breaking a sweat.

"Spartans!" called a voice from the door of the training room. It belonged to Johnson. Seven heads turned to him. "The spooks want a word with you. Probably several in fact. I think they're about to give you some of the real cool stuff."

The Spartans strode through the base to the now familiar lecture room. They were redirected at it's door by a scientist that led them deeper into the base. They were shown into a huge chamber that contained nothing but scientists, engineers, spooks and seven tall boxes.

"Ah, Spartans. Welcome." announced one of the younger spooks named Spire. Anna and Manta were among the other people present.

"We feel that you have adjusted to your new bodies enough for you to take the next step. In those boxes we have your new, custome designed MJLNIR armour. Your names are on the boxes, go stand next to them."

The Spartans complied.

"We will use young Mr Tao in our demonstrations since we predicted that he will be best suited for the trail since he still remains the most physically adapt." stated Spire

Ren's box slid into the ground to reveal a golden suit of armour. It consisted of metal plating and a black under layer. Its helmet had two eyes rather than the visor that the older model possessed, had ridge running from the forehead over the top and to the base of the neck and black tiger stripes below the eyes. The suits boots had pointed toes and heels that could skewer foes with a kick.

"If you will just allow our technicians to install you into the armour then we may begin."

It took quite a while for the men and women to fit the armour onto Ren's body. When they had finished though the shaman stood before them like a mighty warrior god. The techs ran him through basic movement since the suit was super reactive and so needed to be carefully adjusted and harmonised with its wearer.

Much more time had passed before Ren was ready to really try out the suit. He was pointed to the a cross on the ground which he clumsily walked towards and stood upon. Suddenly a full obstacle course rose out from the ground.

Even to the other Spartans super effective eyes, Ren was nearly a blur. A clumsy blur maybe since it crashed many times but a blur all the same. A few seconds later he had finished the course and was returning to the technicians with equal speed.

The other shamans eagerly allowed the technicians to fit their suits around them. Each suit was similar in design but had unique features to match with the specific Spartan. Yoh's armour was a sea blue, Hao's a blood red, Horrohorro's a light sky blue, Ryu's was purple, Lyserg's green while Chocolove's was orange.

Except for Faust. His armour was pure white but for a red helmet, knee pads and shoulder pads. The spook explained this as a marker to show that Faust was the field medic for the group.

"You will all discover special features of the MJLNIR armour as you grow more accustomed to them but firstly we would like to test a feature that we have been unable to try other than in theory." announced Spire.

"Previous MJLNIR suits were reliant upon AI units to run them efficiently. The problem with AI are that they have short lives, cost a painful amount to produce and are limited to their technology so a simple EMP burst could potentially take them out. So to advance the suits combat capabilities and to take advantage of your unique skills, our scientists, technicians and your friend Manta, we think we were able to ensure that you can integrate your spirit allies with your suits."

Spire indicated to Lyserg. "Spartan, integrate your spirit with your armour as you would with your dowsing crystal."

"Sir!" saluted Lyserg. His little pink fairy landed on his out held hand. "Into the armour!"

There was a brief flash as the fairy entered the armour. The green metal and black material both began to glow ever so faintly pink, more like a faded sheen than an actual light.

"How does it feel?" Spire inquired.

"Integration and maintaining it take more furyoku than I am used to but with the augmentations it could be sustainable none stop under normal circumstances." Lyserg answered.

"Good." smiled Spire. "You see that target over there? Well we have added your dousing devise into your suit's wrist so use it to hit the target from where you stand."

Lyserg aimed his arm towards the target. No one had told him how to activate the weapon so he willed it to fire. The razor sharp crystal shot out from his wrist and struck the target at the bulls eye.

"Now force your furyoku down the line."

The shaman obeyed. The line glowed a brighter pink then the target exploded.

"Splendid." said Spire happily. "You are now all combat ready other than some additional training so that you can familiarise yourselves with the suits systems. For active combat you will be split into two teams of four so that we can use you more efficiently."

"Yoh, you will be the leader of blue team. Hao, Ryu and Chocolove will be your team members. Ren will lead red team, commanding Horrohorro, Faust and Lyserg. These teams will be your lives so make sure that they both function perfectly."

"What of my dear Eliza?" asked Faust as he stroked his love's hand with his armoured fingers.

"She is no Spartan. A place has been made for her to serve as a base medic so that she is away from the front lines."

"What are the terms of our employment?" sneered Ren. "If I remember right then we only have to work for you until you can send us back to our own time."

"That is still true." stated the spook. "Which brings me to your first mission. Just outside earth's orbit is an abandoned satellite. It was taken over by the covenant during their invasion of earth. We could nuke it but we need an object that is housed within the satellite. We could send in marines but the loss of lives would be too great in humanity's current fragile state. This leaves us the option of sending in the Spartans."

"The satellite is a ring roughly a mile in diameter with three levels. The object we seek is in the very centre. Grunts currently occupy its structure, about five hundred we estimate. Jackal pirates often dock there to trade and we believe that one of their stealth frigates are about to dock there. Blue team is tasked with retrieving our item while red team will capture the stealth frigate."

"Five hundred grunts and a jackal ship doesn't sound like a training mission." gulped Ryu.

"Nonsense." snapped Spire. "The master chief could have done that by himself. There are eight of you and each of you are stronger then the chief. This should be a stroll in the park."

The Spartans were sent to the armoury and given free choice on their equipment. To add to the occasion the ONI techs had just completed a new series of weapons. There was the human issue plasma swords that were custom built for each Spartan to mimic their weapons of choice during the shaman fights. To be prepared every weapon was placed into two crates, one for each team.

Two pelicans sat at the ready for them. They were to be deployed at opposite ends of the satellite. Jake Fletcher, the crazy ODST, stood next to one with a flask of whiskey to his lips.

"My how you've all changed." he chuckled. "I'll be serving as blue teams pilot today, luck you lot, eh."

"Great." muttered Ryu.

Horrohorro laughed heavily at blue teams luck but his smile was quickly wiped off his face when a woman fired of a gun and shouted angrily. "Don't think that I'll put up with that retarded laughter, you freckin' board head. The names Tamary El and if you give me any shit you'll discover my skills with a rusty spoon."

"I'd be careful." chuckled Fletcher. "That bitch is crazy."

"Speak for yourself." sweat dropped Yoh.

The female pilot's hair was a bleached blonde that was several inches longer then regulation allowed. She had a shapely figure beneath the pilot suit. She appeared to be in her early twenties.

"Why is everyone hired to fly us insane?" whimpered Horrohorro miserably.

"Load up your shit so we can get going already." Tamary yelled. "There's a sky full of covie bastards waiting for us to arrive."

The Spartans loaded themselves into their respective pelicans and awaited their departure. Spire's voice sounded through the ships comm link. "_Blue team will set of as soon as I finish speaking, red team five minutes after that. Stealth would be preferable on this mission but as long as it is completed I don't frankly care how. Good luck_."

Blue team's pelican took of into the sky.

000000000000

"Launch the attack!" roared the Prophet of Retribution.

000000000000

Hundreds of covenant ships emerged from slipspace directly over earth. Blue team was suddenly surrounded by the sleek purple ships.

"Shit!" cursed Fletcher as he swerved away from a ship that had appeared before the pelican.

"_Spartans!_" called Spire's voice. "_Where are you?_"

"Smack bang in the centre of a covenant armada." spat Fletcher.

"_Return to earth immediately_"

"No can do sir. We are closer to the space end of the fleet than we are to earth. To turn back through so many ships is suicide, even for me."

"_Damn it! Invade one of their ships or something. Forget the satellite._"

"I have a better idea. You'll have to trust me on this one. Good luck your end." Fletcher flicked off the comm link.

"What's your plan?" asked Yoh in a strained voice.

"We're gonna form the second prong of a two pronged attack." grinned the pilot. "I'll drop you off on the satellite, you all get the box that ONI want, redirect the satellite to move through the Covenant fleet and self-destruct at its centre while you escape on the stealth frigate. Then we swap ships, me taking the frigate back to ONI whilst you Spartans invade the closest covenant ship and just generally cause havoc."

"A walk in the park then." scoffed Hao sarcastically.

"It's the best we've got." sighed Yoh. "Ren and the others are still on earth so we have to hope that they can stop any ground forces the covenant send. Either way we have no choice but to do this. Fletcher, continue on to the satellite at full speed."

"Aye aye, sir."

00000000000000000

"Damn alien bastards." roared Tamary. "There is no way in hell that we can fly through that."

"_Red team. Abort you mission and regroup at the briefing room. The covenant have invaded with full force and we'll need you four on the ground to deal with their forces._" ordered the nervous voice of Spire.

"Who needs training." snorted Ren. "This way we actually may get to challenge ourselves. Hurry up, we have aliens to slay."

000000000000

"Do you have a lock on its location yet now that we are within range." asked Retribution.

"It would appear that the Necrematus is located on an island that the humans call England. I am afraid that I cannot give a more accurate coordinate." growled a brute from a nearby console.

Retribution gazed at his monitor silently for several moments. "Glass every human city other than those on this England. Release the Jiralhisae into earth's seas and order the deployment of every available warrior to England. The Jiralhanae will lead the attack."

"As you will it, my Prophet."

The prophet smiled a malicious smile. "The rebirth of the mighty Covenant and the extermination of the vile humans is close at hand now. With the Necrematus we will finally have become the equals to the forerunners."

00000000000000

_A.N. Ok, another chapter down. The main arc is finally beginning so I hope you enjoy the upcoming chapters. If you have any suggestions feel free to tell me. I will give greater detail on the new MJLNIR armour and weapons in later chapters but I could describe all eight shamans equipment in one chapter as it would just be a page of solid description. All characters will also be developed further now that I only have four Spartans at any one time. _

_May you all find good reading - FWF._


End file.
